Week #18: Book Week
Date: 6–12 May 2024
- Curator: Anna Machwic, PhD (Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Katowice)
- Producers: Magdalena Palupska, MA (Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Katowice), Aleksandra Kwiatkowska, MA (University of Silesia in Katowice)
Description of the week
Week #18 of 50 Weeks in the City of Science is Book Week. The event is part of the European City of Science programme, which will last throughout 2024.
It is impossible to imagine learning – both serious and everyday – without books. Today, we read more and more often using screens, but the paper book remains a medium that is unique and has something magical about it. Let’s see why this is so? Books not only contain words, but that convey content, they also have a physical form that influences whether we read well, whether we return with pleasure to illustrations that stimulate the imagination, and whether we understand and remember scientific facts. It is the physical representation of books that makes us want to touch them, turn the pages, admire the covers and even enjoy the smell of fresh printing that we will focus primarily on during Book Week.
The multitude of book forms is a very wide catalog, ranging from full-color illustrations of children’s books, through comics and zines, to experimental art books.
Not only the content and knowledge contained in the book, but also the format, weight and shade of paper, type of binding, selection of typeface, typographic layout and many, many other elements that we deal with on a daily basis at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Katowice make we love books not only for what they say, but also for how they say it.
During Book Week, on 8 May, we will celebrate Librarian’s Day, and who deals with books more often than the librarians? During Book Week, we invite you to academic libraries where they will discover their smallest, largest, oldest and other -est… volumes.
What are we planning during Book Week?
Many interesting exhibitions and shows that will reveal a slightly different face of books, including:
- Imaginary Unit exhibition – a presentation of books written by students of the Book Graphics Studio of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Katowice, during which we will show unusual and non-obvious book designs.
- You like zines, or maybe you want to find out what they are? We will host Michał Chojecki, an expert, creator and publisher of zines, founder of Oficyna Peryferie. We will show gems published by Oficyna, whose mission is to popularise and promote niche artistic publications.
- Exhibition of the international student competition review AGRAFA 2024, which will include designs for books and other editorial forms designed by the youngest generation of designers.
- We will also not forget about books for children and adults with special needs. Gregor Strutz, an expert in inclusive design, will hold workshops for the library community.
- Specialists – photographers and theorists – dealing with photo books will talk about them during the meeting: ‘Books without words’.
- The Institute of Fine Arts of the University of Silesia in Cieszyn has prepared a rich offer of workshops and meetings around books.
- Special tours are prepared by the Special Collections Department of the Silesian Library, which will reveal real treasures.
- Book Week will be a unique opportunity to get acquainted with the gems of the collections of Silesian academic libraries.
And that’s not all! Participate yourself to find out what we’ve prepared!
Profile of the curator
Anna Machwic, PhD – she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Katowice. Since 2010, she has a PhD in fine arts. Shee has been teaching graphic design since 2003, and since 2013 she has been the head of the Illustration Studio at her alma mater. She attended national and international conferences, including: European Art of Illustration in Warsaw (2009), Think(in) Visual Communication in Warsaw (2014), Illustration Reaserch in Kraków (2012), Laughter in Visual Communication in Warsaw (2016). She has conducted workshops and lectures on illustration in Poland and abroad, including: at the North Wale School of Art and Design in Wrexham (Great Britain) or at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp (Belgium). She is the author of numerous articles and speeches on book design and illustration, and a juror in competitions related to illustration and children’s books. In 2022, she received the PTWK Centenary Diploma in recognition of her special contributions to the development and importance of the Polish books.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.