Intricate newspaper cuts by Donna Ruff.

Remarkable work from UK-based artist Matthew Picton uses strips of paper to construct maps of cities from around the world. The sculptural creations use both historic and fictional texts to produce cartographic representations of each city. The materials used are reflective of each respective culture, from literary and religious texts to sheet music and DVD film covers.

Cities are often described as living organisms; viewed as subject rather than object. Matthew Picton engages with this tradition of humanising the city by deconstructing the clean, uncompromising aesthetic of the cartographic city plan and imbuing it with the unique history and culture of each place.

In London 1940 four panels depict the different wards of east London during World War II. Based on extensive research, Picton’s sculptures are created in accordance with the original bomb damage maps of wartime London. A meticulous record was kept of the damage that occurred to every street and building, and the maps were colour coded to reflect the level of destruction. The finished structures are carefully burned to re-create this record, with the areas of total destruction detailed in the maps completely burnt away in the sculpture. This four part sculpture is intended to create a powerful visual reminder of the ruined state wrought upon the physical body of London by the war.

Venice, another work by Picton, is constructed from excerpts of Death in Venice written by Thomas Mann after his visit to the city in 1911. During his travels he experienced a cholera outbreak and was witness to a strange mixture of official denials, undermined by persistent rumours, creating a sense of unease that features prominently in the text.

The walls of text are also interwoven with segments of the musical score by Benjamin Britten for the operatic interpretation of Mann’s novel – these notes are only visible along the walls facing the Grand Canal and around the circumference of Venice where it meets the water. The work is made from absorbent paper partially soaked in water and mud dredged from the lagoon surrounding Venice. These water stains seeping upwards from the base of the sculpture through the crisp, white paper parallel the unique predicament of Venice as it gradually returns to the water and reference the contamination that spread the water-born cholera through the city.

(via My Modern Met)