A Better Distorted View

A map can show much more than rivers, roads, and political boundaries. It can express an attitude. Saul Steinberg’s famous New Yorker cover illustration, called “View from 9th Avenue,” shows a foreshortened map of New York City and its environs. Beyond the city’s avenues and the Hudson River, Steinberg’s map looks westward toward vaguely defined regions: Jersey, the rest of the United States, the Pacific Ocean, and a barely visible Asia and Europe.