Floyd Sully, a Canadian collector fascinated by practical yet beautiful representations of China, laboured over 15 years to assemble this beautiful collection focused on maps, documentary paintings, and illustrated texts. It features works produced inside China and abroad that were created for both Chinese and Western viewers. This publication explores important dimensions of Chinese visual culture and offers a diverse and telling set of perspectives on the Chinese world as it underwent a process of profound transformation spanning five centuries of artistic production through to modern times.

Walter Davis is an assistant professor in the Department of Art and Design and the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Alberta.