A new exhibition of artwork is set to be unveiled at Newtown's Oriel Davies Gallery this weekend.

Organisers say 'Cartographic Imaginaries' presents a unique and compelling collection of twelve commissioned artworks that respond to twelve English language novels set in Wales.

This touring exhibition of work by different artists is part of the Literary Atlas of Wales project, which investigates how books and maps help us understand the spatial nature of human experience by exploring how English language novels set in Wales contribute to our understanding of the real-and-imagined nature of the country, its history, and its communities.

The artists were invited to “play with traditional notions of cartographic mapping, and to explore the possibilities of visually communicating the relations between ‘page’ and ‘place’, as well as ‘books’ and ‘maps’.” Through a diverse approach, each work proves that there is no single way to read a book or to know a place; each creates and inhabits its own unique ‘cartographic imaginary’. Yet together, the works embrace multiple voices that speak of the richness of writing, thinking, and inhabiting the real-and-imagined Wales.

Literary Atlas of Wales, plots locations featured in English-language novels set around Wales and presents it through its online resource. To date, hundreds of works of fiction have been studied for the exercise, a joint venture between Cardiff University and Swansea University, in partnership with Literature Wales and the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD).

Currently twelve books have been studied in depth, whereby researchers have recorded all geographical references mentioned in each of the stories on the website. This online tool allows users to follow each plotline around Wales and the world, exploring every place that has shaped the novels.

As well as finding out information online there is also a section where people can submit their own “microfiction”, a short piece of writing about a place in Wales, that is special to them.

Professor Jon Anderson, of Cardiff University’s School of Geography and Planning, who led on the project said: “The website gives users the chance to explore Wales and see how the incredibly diverse country and its people have influenced key works of English-language literature.”

“Everyone living or visiting here will have memories and associations with places around Wales that they can draw upon. We hope that this project will spark people’s creativity to form a rich and detailed literary map that can be shared and added to for years to come.”

The exhibition runs from February 9 to March 13, 2019.