Jerry's Map
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Jerry Gretzinger has hand-drawn an evolving imaginary city map since 1963 using a custom card deck.
The map consists of over 4,000 eight-by-ten-inch panels forming a circle. The creative process is driven by a deck of about 100 cards that dictate tasks such as painting, collage, or adding new panels. Work direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise) is determined by the card's color. The map evolves through successive layers, Base, Void, Red Dimension, Black Ness, Ziggurat, Flood, and Re-Birth, each replacing the previous layer. The project has been exhibited in museums and has an active subreddit, r/jerrymapping.
What commenters are saying
Commenters praised the project as a fascinating example of outsider art and procedural creativity, comparing it to Henry Darger and Dwarf Fortress. Several shared personal nostalgia for drawing tile-based maps as children. One debate arose over whether the process should be replicated with AI; many pushed back, arguing the value lies in the human artist's slow, deliberate process. A few referenced a recent People Make Games documentary on the map. One commenter noted the card deck system makes the map feel like a system Jerry observes rather than solely creates.