Gerco de Ruijter: Grid Corrections

In the late 18th century, surveyors divided the Midwestern United States into the Jefferson Grid: a system of neat, one-by-one-mile squares. But because the earth is round, the lines tapered to the north. Therefore the grid had to be corrected: every 20 miles, grid corrections brought theory and practice back together. Pilot and aerial photographer Gerco de Ruijter (born 1961) first spotted these small bends and T-junctions while completing a residency in Wichita; then, with the help of Google Earth, De Ruijter found thousands of these corrections. Presenting De Ruijter’s selection of over 250 photocollage grid corrections―snowed under or dried up, in cities and in deserts―and featuring an exceptional design by Irma Boom, this publication is a work of art and monument in one, a testimony to the human urge to design the landscape and the ways in which nature responds to that urge.