Dublin Art Book Fair 2022

Dublin Art Book Fair is a centre for artist books, and champions creative, independent publishers, both Irish and international. It presents a curated selection of books on art, design, visual culture, philosophy, architecture, select fiction and poetry.

The twelfth edition of Dublin Art Book Fair was guest curated by Rosie Lynch – Creative Director of Workhouse Union in Kilkenny. Her theme, A Caring Matter, was explored through the books themselves and an eleven-day programme of talks, events and workshops. At the crux was the idea of care, considered in poetic and imminent ways through the role of formal and informal publishing, and how we build communities of solidarity and belonging to how we care for our buildings and towns. Lynch’s programme put care at the centre of how we think about society, our environment, how we work, live and make art.

Graphically, the identity took inspiration from a more everyday presence of care – the stencilled 'Handle with care' lettering that often adorns boxes and other packing materials. The base colour palette of ecru and brown played off the tapestry work of artist Marielle MacLeman that hung in the space during the fair – but a bold deep pink was also introduced to add some vibrance and punch in advertising and other promotional materials.

A set of three tote bags were produced for the fair, as well as bookmarks and a large-scale wall poster showing the programme of events.