AN exhibition of old maps of Ceredigion continues at the county museum until 24 January.

Artist Sarah Byfield, from the School of Art at Aberystwyth University, has been looking at some of the old maps held at Ceredigion Museum and has selected a few to display.

Explaining her choice of maps, Sarah said: “I wanted to show how fascinating these maps are, not only the printing techniques but also to illustrate how different maps can be.

“I went on some of the events which were held at the Gas Gallery which resulted in an exciting exhibition of art works based on landscape and mapping.”

This led onto the current work.

“I wanted to look at some of the old maps held at the museum and luckily was able to engage some of the artists in producing prints for another show of work.”

Many of the maps at the museum show Ceredigion and the Aberystwyth area.

Sarah added: “Most of us are familiar with road maps.

“We usually find ourselves searching for routes which will get us from A to B in the fastest possible time.”

Maps are marked with symbols and signs which we can follow once we have established a few essentials, such as which way is north. One of the most popular books available today is the common road atlas. It is made up of areas of landscape giving us an overview of the whole country.

Today, people use Satellite Navigation Systems (sat navs) in their cars which work by using satellites to track their position.

The satellite monitor works out which way a vehicle is heading and positions it on a road map.

The driver is given directions to a chosen destination on a display screen which only shows the relevant parts of the road being travelled.

“It is a linear view of the journey and is very similar to early ‘ribbon maps’.

Sarah continues to explain the ideas that some of the artists have used in their work: “Creative Mapping looks at old maps held by Ceredigion Museum and informs us about the production and the purpose of those early works.”