How does our environment and the space around us get constructed? The city is often considered an undesirable space where normative borders and divisions threaten to break down our conventional, comfortable understanding of the world. But the city can also exist as a liminal space between that which is expressible through language and that which radically resists expression.

To live, work, and dwell in a city is a lifestyle that is often desired by people who long to live a “fast-paced” life. Walking access to restaurants, bars, and shopping centers can also be seen as incentives for people to live in a city. However, these lively metropolises are often portrayed as trashy, dangerous “ghettos,” poverty-stricken, dirty places where homelessness, crime, and disease live. Rhetoric about cities that emphasize struggling communities can sometimes overshadow the vibrancy that a city has to offer.

Within this theme, a map is used to display one medium of persuasive imagery that captures how a city can be viewed as a distasteful wasteland. It is important to note that William Bunge, the creator of this map, was a “radical” advocate for equity and justice and utilized his geographical expertise to rethink what a city really is. Furthermore, in an effort to reclaim the city as an epicenter of vibrancy, designers such as Margaret Dunn have used physical, “negative” specimens of a city and turned them into tangible fashion and art.

Titled “Region of Rat-Bitten Babies,” this map exhibits a record of babies bitten by rats in the city of Detroit during the years 1967, 1969, and 1970. Currently housed in the Cornell University Library Division of Rare & Manuscript Collections Persuasive Cartography The PJ Mode Collection, this map captures the fear associated with city rat dwellings that ultimately contribute to the common misunderstood nature of a city. William Bunge, the creator of this map, contributed greatly to the “advancement of geography and to its social relevance to addressing social inequity and injustice.” With expressions including “slum ghettos” and descriptions of rats as “predacious carnivores” that want to eat infants’ toes, this map overtly captures the nuances of city life being seen as dangerous and off-putting. However, this map also encourages viewers to rethink personal opinions about a city, and arguably recognize the monstrous things that can be said about a city that are not always necessarily true, or even lack context.