Land of Mirrors
Cartoonist: Maria Medem
Translators: Aleshia Jensa and Daniela Ortiz
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Publication Date: February 2025
Do you remember when you were a kid, and you’d open a new pack of construction paper? You could flip through it and see a very specific rainbow of familiar colors, shades that seemed specific to construction paper. Doing that was common for me as a child, but I hadn’t thought of the memory or the sensation in many, many years — until I read the new English translation of Spanish artist Maria Medem’s graphic novel, Land of Mirrors, a bright fine art item that will draw you in with the pure gorgeousness of its design. 
Yes, the striking book design is the first thing you’re likely to notice about Land of Mirrors. It’s evident before you even open the book, in fact. You can see the construction paper-esque shades while the book is simply lying on its side. What’s more, however, is that once you open it, most of the pages take those same colors and intermingle them within the story itself. The end effect is a physical item with a bright exterior that sort of teases the journey you’re about to take. I’m not sure if that was intentional, or just an inadvertent thing that happened because most of the pages have a colorful frame around the way they’re laid out. But it made me appreciate this book as a fine art item on a deeper level than I do most graphic novels, which I tend to value based on the experience of reading the story.
And to be clear, Land of Mirrors is also fascinating to read. The base concept is that the protagonist, Antonia, is the sole occupant of a deserted town, serving it as a caretaker of sorts. Giving her life shape, is a flower she must visit, nurture, and protect each day. The conflict of our plot — as much as there is one — is Antonia’s fear that the flower will one day die. To borrow an overused, often-meaningless phrase: Land of Mirrors is a mood.
And it’s a mood I quite liked, particularly during this dark time a year, wherein the weather has been frigid and the news tumultuous. This is a book that radiates lonesomeness in a cathartic way that I need right now.
I will note, however, that while I was satisfied to let this book just sort of wash over me, readers who prefer a structured, concrete narrative will be left wanting. Land of Mirrors is closer to an ambient prose poem than it is a story with a three-act structure. If this book were a song, it’d be shoegaze dream pop, with lots of guitar swirls — and not likely to get much radio play. As such, it might be likely to frustrate some readers, as well as to fleetingly glance off the mind as soon as it’s over. If you’re game for a less-structured story, however, this is a very good one.
If you’re in the mood for a wonderful aesthetic experience — one that you’re comfortable not entirely understanding — Land of Mirrors is absolutely lovely, brimming with stunning visual concepts, as well as prose that has been translated beautifully into English. This book is a wonderful way to spend an early evening alone, curled in a chair, blissing out.
Land of Mirrors by Maria Medem is available now
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