Talking Pictures @BolognaBookPlus

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 comprises a showcase, a jury and a seminar with a jury discussion. 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, to explore the cultural importance and ongoing impact of the contemporary international visual book. It comprises an exhibit during the book fair,  a series of seminars, 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. Estonia is the chosen region 2025, as part of their Market of Honour programme. Ukraine was 2024’s region, and our partner was the Kyiv National Book Arsenal Festival. 

Estonia will be the focus in 2025.