Wood’s ‘Maps, Art, Power’ treats mapping as a historical technology of authority that becomes ordinary precisely by saturating everyday life. The iconic idea is that maps mediate relations between states, institutions, citizens, bodies and territories, carrying the history of power even when they appear merely practical. Its theoretical contribution lies in dismantling cartographic innocence: maps are not transparent depictions of space, but discursive objects that organise claims, permissions, exclusions and imaginaries. Methodologically, the essay moves through a longue durée history of mapping, linking state formation, communication forms, art, popular use and governmental reach. Its conceptual operation is cartographic politicisation: the map becomes readable as both a cultural form and an apparatus of mediation. The bridge to the wider field connects critical cartography, visual culture, political geography, art theory and everyday spatial practice.