The map as found object is the perfect starting point for this body of work by Dan Mills. It is the ideal foundation for the examination of the larger themes Mills has in mind: themes of political systems, the power generated by these systems, and the impact of that power on all in its path.
In the work entitled MARGINALIA, for example, Mills presents a map of “The World: 1763 - 1848”, a period of rampant colonization of much of the world by European powers. Letters across the upper margin of the map are blocked or removed so as to read “Net Gross World History”. A similar strategy in (NATIVE) AMERICAN STORY QUILT results in the emergence of the sentence “Deny Prior Histories” across the margin of a map of North America.
—Nancy Einreinhofer, "Embellishments and Subversions, Dan Mills: MAPS” essay, exhibition brochure, Ben Shahn Galleries, William Paterson University, 2001.
Marginalia, 1998, acrylic and collage on map, 52 1/2 x 66 x 2 inches.
Collection of the Ewing Gallery of Art + Architecture, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.