UBC Press Urville book Paperback

Urville, the capital of a large island province, has a population of nearly 12 million, making it the one of the most significant cities in Europe. It is also entirely imaginary.

Gilles Tréhin, an autistic man with exceptional creative talents and an obsession with large cities, conceived and developed Urville over the course of 20 years. He shares his vision in this beautifully illustrated guide to the city, which he renders convincingly real in nearly 300 drawings of different districts of Urville. He describes, in remarkable detail, the architectural styles of its individual buildings and provides historical, geographical, economic and cultural information. This includes historical figures and cultural anecdotes grounded in historical reality - Tréhin accounts for the effects of the Vichy regime, the Second World War and globalisation on his imagined city.

This book offers fascinating evidence of and insight into the creative power of the autistic mind and will be of interest to people with autism and without.

Gilles Tréhin is 32 years old and autistic. He has exceptional talents in mathematics, music, languages and art. He has been developing his vision of Urville since the age of 15, and drawing since the age of 5. His father is vice-president of Autism-Europe, Belgium.