“Heritage at Hand at CroAtrium” spotlights books as works of visual art
Featuring a lecture-and-exhibition programme themed Art between the covers: Book as a work of art, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) organised the fifth edition of Heritage at Hand at CroAtrium.
Held as part of this year’s Croatian Book Month, the programme was prepared as one of the events of the Library’s 2025 programme promoting and popularising Croatian cultural heritage which it preserves as part of CROATICA, Croatia’s national library collection.
Book as a medium of expression in visual art
In her lecture, Professor at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts Tanja Dabo presented the specific features of books created primarily as works of visual art, explaining the differences between the artist’s book, art book, book art and similar concepts. Providing an overview of the history of these artistic forms, she particularly emphasised the value of artists’ books created by female artists which were neglected for a long time.
In addition to Professor Dabo’s works and titles in this format preserved as part of the NSK Print Collection, the accompanying exhibition showcased artists’ books created by the Academy’s doctoral students and visual artists Mia Maraković, Zorana Unković, Ivana Bajcer, Marija Lopac and Anita Miloš Tomaić.
The programme participants learned more about the ideas that prompted the artists to reach for the book as the medium of artistic expression, as well as about all the ways in which they try to engage the viewers and readers in a direct and dynamic interaction with all the segments of their works.
