NSK to host “Best Book Design from all over the World” exhibition
1 July – 31 August 2026
From 1 July to 31 August 2026, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) will be hosting the Best Book Design from all over the World exhibition, featuring the winning titles selected as part of the eponymous international competition organised by the German Book Art Foundation (Stiftung Buchkunst).
Marking the 30th anniversary of the competition’s presence in Croatia through the organisation of the national best book design competition (Hrvatska lijepa knjiga) and 60 years since the Foundation’s establishment, the exhibition will be put on in the Library’s grand lobby.
Thirty years of the Croatian national best book design competition
At the Croatian national best book design competition, which since 2024 NSK has organised in cooperation with the Croatian Designers Association, Croatian titles are selected every year to be presented at two major book events in Europe – the Leipzig and Frankfurt book fairs.
While the first includes the finale of the Foundation’s international competition and the accompanying exhibition of the latest winning titles, the latter hosts the Book Art International exhibition, also showcasing the world’s finest examples of book design.
Croatia’s most successful titles so far
When it comes to the success of best designed Croatian books as part of the Best Book Design competition, three Croatian titles were shortlisted so far – the 1996 edition of The Marvelous Adventures and Misadventures of Hlapić the Apprentice (Čudnovate zgode šegrta Hlapića), the classic of Croatian children’s literature by a four-time Nobel nominee Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, for design by Mihajlo Arsovski, a 1997 title thematising Pope’s 1997 visit to Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sveti Otac Ivan Pavao II. u pastirskom pohodu 12. i 13. travnja 1997, Sarajevo, Bosna i Hercegovina), for design by Zoran Filipović, and Fiume Fantastika, published in 2021, for design by Maša Poljanec and Leo Kirinčić.
Celebrating the best of Croatian book design
Out of altogether 188 entries submitted during the latest edition of Croatia’s national competition, a six-member judging panel, with Senior Librarian and Curator at the NSK Print Collection Vesna Vlašić Jurić acting as the Library’s representative, selected 12 titles to represent the greatest achievements in Croatia’s book design in 2025.
After the international presentation of the winning titles as part of the Leipzig and Frankfurt book fairs, all books selected as part of over 30 Best Book Design national competitions are included among the holdings of the German Museum of Books and Writing, operating as part of the German National Library.
Looking forward to continuing our cooperation with the Foundation in the coming years, we invite you to visit the exhibition and enjoy the best of Croatian book design.
Books are beautiful, in and out!