The Geography of the Imaginary and of Dreams: The Art of Francesca Baerald

Francesca Baerald takes the opposite approach: each of her maps is meticulously drawn by hand with painstaking patience, using pencils, inks, pens, and watercolors—the very same tools that could have been used centuries ago. With her works full of hidden details, she invites you to pause and observe, until you realize that the map in front of you transforms into an authentic artifact, magically recovered from those distant worlds.

With her maps, you can finally get lost again during the journey, searching for those small elements that tell of magic yet to be discovered. You can relive the carefree joy of childhood, when entire days were spent imagining adventure companions and magical places to explore.

Her finely decorated frames guide you to the discovery of fantasy worlds that you've probably already encountered in books, movies, comics, or games. These are places that come back to life before your eyes thanks to a simple map.

A Map to Guide You: Video Games
Even before you start playing, when the monitor is dark and covered in loading bars, your eyes are already scanning the map of the new world you can't wait to dive into.

Francesca Baerald's maps look like genuine artifacts passed down by the inhabitants of these digital worlds. At the exhibition, you can immerse yourself in the horrors of Sanctuary with a detailed reproduction of the map created for the Diablo IV Collector’s Edition. You can discover the corruption plaguing Thedas, the world of Dragon Age, or explore remote lands alongside Aloy, the protagonist of Horizon Forbidden West.

Test yourself and find Basim hidden in the map of Baghdad's streets, recreated for Assassin's Creed Mirage, or discover what Paris would have looked like if Louis XVI had crushed the French Revolution with his mechanical army of automatons on the map created for Steelrising.

Finally, an unreleased preparatory sketch gives you a rare behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the map for Octopath Traveler, the beloved Square Enix RPG.

A Map to Find Yourself: Books and Graphic Novels
The world melts away into the scent of paper, becoming something new as we get lost in the pages of a book that sweeps us away. We live and relive days in the company of familiar faces and new friends. We chase words, emotions, and the desire to know what will happen next, until suddenly we look around, disoriented. We retrace our steps again and again, but something isn't right. Our fingers race through the pages, and finally we find it, a sigh of relief. There it is—the map that grounds us in the world we're living in.

Follow the footsteps of Conan with the recent map of the Hyborian Age, the starting point for all new official comic book, book, and game sagas centered on the infamous barbarian. Visit the lands of World of Warcraft with the maps from the Exploring Azeroth books or explore the majesty of Xadia, the setting of The Dragon Prince animated series.

See the maps created for The Rise of the Dragon by George R.R. Martin, which tells the history of the house at the center of House of the Dragon. The exhibition also offers a sneak peek at the new map of Ketterdam, which depicts the city in the new special anniversary edition of Six of Crows, the novel that inspired the Netflix series Shadow and Bone.

A Map to Conquer You: Role-Playing and Board Games
The unmistakable sound of dice deciding destiny, as pawns are moved across the board and the chatter rises with the excitement of the game. Worn-out cards are shuffled and played, armies are on the move, and spells are ready to change the action in unexpected ways.

Gaming is intrinsically linked to maps, and over the past decade, Francesca Baerald has had the pleasure of working with all the biggest names in the industry.

The exhibition features numerous maps from Dungeons & Dragons, including the map of Ansalon from the Dragonlance saga, a special reproduction of the Sigil map from Planescape, the majestic illustration of the city of Greyhawk, and many other maps created for the world's most famous role-playing game.

As the sole official cartographer for all board game maps and the latest edition of Legend of the Five Rings, maps from Rokugan will be on display—an empire inspired by feudal Japan with influences from various East Asian cultures.

See the map of Gloomhaven in person or be captivated by the enormous map of mythical England during the reign of King Arthur.

In a world premiere, the Cartomancer painting/self-portrait, created for a new, unannounced expansion of the card game Sorcery: Contested Realms, will also be featured.

You can also admire the original illustrations that Francesca Baerald created for Magic: The Gathering and discover Misty Vale, the map with which Dragonbane won the prestigious Gold Medal for Best Cartography at the 2024 ENNIE Awards.

And to Entrap You in Art
This exhibition aims to celebrate fantastic cartography and show how an artistic map is not just a tool to guide us to a destination. It can also be a true portal that transports us through time and space into a new world that exists only in our collective imagination.

In the multimedia projects we love to get lost in, the map becomes a true lifeline, the link that connects everything and makes the fantastic and imagined adventures tangible—something to admire, study, discover, and experience.

This is how a map becomes like a personal photograph that travels through time: it begins as an exciting glimpse into the future when it invites us to discover new worlds full of adventure; it transforms into a valuable tool when it helps us navigate missions and places to explore in the present; and finally, it becomes a precious memento of past adventures, just like a yellowed photo of a faraway journey that our body carries the imprint of, even if it was lived only in the mind and spirit.