The Map Is Not the Territory

by Alan Woods, Ralph Rumney

This innovative book is an interaction based on a series of interviews between the artist Ralph Rumney and the writer Alan Woods. Rumney's extraordinary life is chronicled here, as well as his works over the last 45 years. He is the only British founder-member of Situationist International, and the lone founder of the London Psychogeographical Society. Complementing the open elements of play and discovery inherent in Rumney's psychogeography is an almost Duchamp-esque interest in the applicability of games. This volume contains over 100 illustrations, many of which have not been previously reproduced.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published June 23, 2001

About the author

Alan Woods is a Trotskyist political theorist. He is one of the leading members of the British group Socialist Appeal as well as its parent group, the International Marxist Tendency (IMT). He is political editor of the IMT's In Defence of Marxism website.

Woods supported the Militant tendency within the UK Labour Party until the early 1990s, when he and Ted Grant were expelled from the tendency and founded the Committee for a Marxist International (soon renamed International Marxist Tendency) in 1992. They continued with the policy of entryism into the Labour Party.

Woods has been particularly vocal in his support for the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, and has repeatedly met with the socialist Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, leading to speculation he was a close political adviser.

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book ten years ago - with a lot of trouble in trying to find it - but I did, read it, and totally forgot about it. Looking for something to read, I picked this up from my personal library, and fell into the world of Ralph Rumney, who was one of the original members of the Situationists. British artist who was one of many who got kicked out of that group by Guy Debord. This is a book that focuses on Rumney's artwork as well as his life before, during and after Guy Debord and company. He's a fascinating man who lives in the right place and time. Similar to the City Lights book by him, but this is more about his ideas in art and society. Still, both books by him (the other being 'The Council') is pretty essential for those who have or want to collect Situationist related books.

[Mehdi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is fascinating insomuch as it takes us into the intimacy of Ralph Rumney, an artist who is far less known than many of the people he helped bring to fame. We learn about Ralph's fascinating life as a professional drifter - from Venice to Paris to New York to Sicily to Manosque and more. However, several chapters are dominated by Woods' ramblings (on things like Benjamin or conceptual art), and should be skipped. Still, one of only two books (alongside with "Le Consul", published Allia) about Rumney, and thus worth a read.