The Melbourne Art Book Fair is an annual event, established in 2015, that offers a unique platform for bringing together a diverse range of art publishers, artists and designers from around the world. Providing vital links with international fairs in New York, London, Tokyo and Paris, the Melbourne Art Book Fair celebrates Melbourne’s status as one of only eleven UNESCO Cities of Literature in the world.

In 2022, the Melbourne Art Book Fair brings together ideas and practices that seek to explore the connections between art, design, publishing and language.

In the 1960s and 1970s groups such as Art & Language (a conceptual artists’ group) and the Milan Women’s Bookstore Collective questioned assumptions around mainstream publishing, art and storytelling; their work had a social base and was anchored in the sharing of ideas. These conversations generated many collaborative works that took forms beyond that of the traditional book – they included installations, poetry, performances and reading groups.

This collaborative practice continues today, with writers, artists and designers experimenting with the form and function of language through publishing, performance and collective action to make work that asks questions of the contexts around art and design.

The 2022 Melbourne Art Book Fair celebrates work that defies definitions and looks to encourage representation of contemporary publishing practice and its provocateurs.

In 2022, the Fair takes on a distributed form across the entirety of Melbourne Design Week, which runs from Thursday 17 March to Sunday 27 March.

STALLHOLDER FAIR AT NGV GREAT HALL Fri 18 – Sun 20 Mar 2022

The Melbourne Art Book Fair’s in-person stallholders will return to the NGV Great Hall on the first weekend of the Melbourne Art Book Fair – Friday 18 March to Sunday 20 March. 

Visitors will have the opportunity to purchase publications from a diverse range of art publishers, artists and designers. Alongside this, the Melbourne Art Book Fair online Publisher Marketplace will highlight national and international publishers unable to be in attendance at the Great Hall.

EVENTS PROGRAM AT VENUES ACROSS VICTORIA Thu 17 – Sun 27 Mar 2022

A range of satellite events will take place around metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria. Venues such as bookshops, galleries, libraries, community centres, public gardens and design studios will present programs including panel discussions, activations, studio workshops, pop-up exhibitions, performance, films, symposiums, reading groups and book clubs.

As part of Melbourne Design Week, the Melbourne Art Book Fair is underpinned by five core principles developed by Creative Victoria as part of the Creative State 2025. These are:

• First Peoples first (including the 11 Guiding Principles of Aboriginal Self-Determination)
• For every Victorian
• Whole of state
• Health and wellbeing
• Environmental impact.

For more information in the Creative State 2025 Strategy visit Creative State 2025.