64rd edition 5 - 8 April 2027 | Bologna - Italy
64rd edition 5 - 8 April 2027 | Bologna - Italy
Talking Pictures is a collaboration between BolognaBookPlus, Hamelin and Steven Guarnaccia, that explores the cultural importance and ongoing impact of the contemporary international visual book. It was conceived in 2018 in partnership with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and Publishers Weekly, on the occasion of the first New York Rights Fair. It comprises an exhibit during the book fair, a seminar, plus an award for the best visual book.
Talking Pictures is interested in those books that blur the borders between contemporary commercial publishing and the latest currents in small-press book-making. We recognize the need for, and champion the creation of, books that attract the broadest diversity of readerships across a range of age groups, interests and cultures, and that unite various image-making disciplines, books that will in turn give rise to commercially viable innovation in contemporary publishing.
Each year, Talking Pictures focuses on the production of a specific country through its best visual books, and on its authors and publishers. Norway is the chosen region 2026, as part of their Guest of Honour programme. The books selection has been chosen by partners Grafill and NORLA. The Talking Pictures Award, plus special mentions are selected on the eve of the fair, selected by a jury comprising Jacks Thomas, Guest Director, BolognaBookPlus, Hamelin and Steven Guarnaccia.
Two special Norwegian exhibitions will be showcased at the fair: The Most Beautiful Book Design of the Year and The Most Beautifully Illustrated Books of the Year.
WINNER
Max Kolstad Henriksen, Last Meal, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, 2025
From “The Most Beautiful Book Design of the Year” by Grafil
‘Last Meal’ appears as the title on the cover, printed in gold letters on black card, though in a very ordinary and small font. It is the first indication of a book that manages to be visually striking without featuring a single image. Its fairly small and compact format, which is almost reminiscent of a sacred text, contains on each double-page spread the requests for the last meal made by a prisoner sentenced to death prior to their execution. On the right is the prisoner’s name, the date and country of execution, and the reason for the sentence; on the left is the requested menu: sometimes just one line, other times a maximum of four, with the rest of the page left blank. The use of space, the typography, and the care taken never to overemphasise the tone on such a radical subject are formal choices that have an even greater emotional impact on the reader, who imagines—or rather, sees—the images that are not there.
MENTIONS:
Lars Fiske, Ta imot, No Comprendo Press, Oslo, 2024
From "The Most Beautifully Illustrated Books of the Year" by Grafil
Ta Imot is not merely the work of an author who is fully aware of his expressive means and the language he employs. Nor is it only a series of heartfelt tributes to the works and masters who have shaped the history of comics. What appears to be a collection of separate stories, given the variety of layouts and narrative approaches, is in fact a single story: the author’s autobiography. Fiske’s comic thus becomes not a display of virtuosity but the best way to show, even before saying so, how much the language of comics has literally shaped a life.
Line Bøhmer Løkken, Dry Eye Dripping stone, Tänapäev, 2025
From “The Most Beautiful Book Design of the Year” by Grafil
In this book, the visuals and physical object itself come together harmoniously to capture the experience of losing one’s sight. The cover, an image evocative of an eye crying a single tear, sets up the delicately executed interior. Images are printed on translucent, tactile paper, and the resulting effect is ephem\eral images that linger like memories once the pages are turned.
Aslak Gurholt, Skrik, MUNCH,2025
From “The Most Beautiful Book Design of the Year” by Grafil
Skrik (Shriek or Scream) published by Munch, the publishing house of the Munch Museum, takes as it’s subject one of the most famous paintings in the world, known in English as The Scream, by the Norwegian artist, Edvard Munch. The first part of the book explores the creation of the iconic painting, while the second part details the ways in which the image has been used, and abused, in popular culture, from an inflatable punching bag, to appearing on adhesive bandages and baby’s bibs. The jury was struck by the crisp pacing that contrasted the almost lulling repetition of the screaming face by Munch with the infinite parodic variations in the book’s second half. Modest but significant changes in paper stock contributed to the book’s design. The jury was positively impressed by the personal quality of the books in the selection and reflected on the fact that in Western culture the only other painting of equal iconic status might be the Mona Lisa. The difference between The Scream and The Smile gave us an idea of how directly Norway seems to look inside itself.
