Authorship, Collaboration, and Art Geography

In his article "Authorship, Collaboration, and Art Geography" Martin de la Iglesia explores the connection between geographical spaces and works of art, a connection often made, but hardly theorized, by scholars in the field of art geography. He suggests that the link between space and object is established by the creator of the object. A feasible method is devised to determine the creator's geographical identity, which in turn determines which space is assigned to the object. Particularly, the implications of multiple authorship for such a methodology are considered. The procedure is exemplified by a geographical analysis of the comic book series Civil War, which was produced by four main creators from the United Kingdom, Canada, and the USA. This spatial-stylistic analysis results in the conception of the work as a patchwork of geographical influences bestowed by its creators. To successfully interpret the results of such an analysis, it is necessary to view them in the context of the general geographical circumstances of the world of comics.