MELBOURNE.- Featuring some of the world’s most creative emerging and established publishers, artists and writers, the 2016 Melbourne Art Book Fair will feature a dynamic program of free talks, book launches and performances over three days from Friday 29 April to Sunday May 1. Now in its second year, the Fair, which drew 16,000 visitors to NGV International last year, will present twice as many publishers and events in 2016.

Bangkok-based artist Wit Pimkanchanapong has designed a translucent canopy comprising thousands of geometric polymer folds which will be suspended from the Great Hall ceiling, under which guests can browse more than 60 stalls showcasing art books, independent zines, limited edition prints and more.

The program launches on Friday 29 April with an all-day International Symposium on the Future of Design for Publishing, followed by a ticketed evening preview which will grant visitors exclusive first access to limited-edition publications as well as music performances, art, pop-up bars and food.

The International Symposium on the Future of Design for Publishing, convened by Brad Haylock and presented in conjunction with the RMIT Design Futures Lab, will investigate new forms of publishing, featuring international guest speakers including Seoul-based Na Kim, one of Korea’s most exciting young graphic designers; David Blamey, a London-based artist and publisher of the independent imprint Open Editions; James Langdon, a UK-based independent graphic designer and director of the artist-run gallery Eastside Projects; and Freek Lomme, publisher of The Netherlands-based imprint Onomatopee. Na Kim and James Langdon will also present public masterclasses on design and publishing during the Fair.

In 2016, the Melbourne Art Book Fair will host special international guests Sternberg Press from Berlin, in their Australian debut. Max Bach, editor of Sternberg Press, will participate in a keynote ‘in conversation’ event with Melbourne writer and academic Justin Clemens on Sunday 1 May.

Other highlight exhibitors include Italian publishing house and art gallery Corraini Edizioni; esteemed German art book publisher Hatje Cantz Verlag; art book publishers Open Editions; and London-based MACK, who are widely regarded as producers of some of the world’s finest contemporary art books. A number of local publishers will also exhibit including Negative Press, M.33 and Particle Books. For a full list of exhibitors visit www.ngvartbookfair.com.

The NGV will launch its first release in a series of limited-edition artist editions, Some Posters from the NGV. This large-format, hand-numbered publication celebrates ninety posters from the NGV’s extensive exhibition poster archive within a lavish flat-bound paperback, tracing cleverly-edited examples from 1963 to 1985.

Edited by Megan Patty, Senior Publications Coordinator, NGV, and award-winning book designer Stuart Geddes, Some Posters from the NGV is both an art object and an exploration of the exhibition poster, and will be available for $69.95. Patty, Geddes and Langdon will speak in conversation about the project on Saturday 30 April. Visitors can also enjoy special access to the NGV’s Shaw Research Library to view a selection of posters from the Gallery’s archive at twice-daily events on 30 April and 1 May.

This year, over twenty publications will be launched at the Melbourne Art Book Fair including a co-publication by Melbourne based imprints Telephone Publishing and Surpllus who will reissue the seminal magazine Lockjaw (1983), a multi-layered part book, part magazine, which arose from Sydney’s early-1980s postmodern philosophy and art scenes. New Zealand-based publisher Ilam Press will launch Head Full of Snakes: Issue Four, a motorcycle magazine that also explores crossovers between motorcycling and art, design and music.

A grammar workshop, Greatest ‘its, will be hosted on Saturday by the astute writing and editing duo Penny Modra and Max Olijnyk of The Good Copy about the most anxiety-inducing of punctuation marks: the apostrophe. On Sunday, artist and musician Jon Campbell will stage a musical performance and discuss the design process for the cover of his latest vinyl LP.

Also on Sunday, design studio SIBLING will present Architecture: what matters?, which will see twenty architects form a circle in Federation Court and present twenty-second responses to the question, ‘What matters?’. Each response is accompanied by a designed A4 pamphlet which will be dispersed throughout the duration of the Fair and available for download online.

In conjunction with the Melbourne Art Book Fair, the NGV design store has collaborated with artist Agatha Gothe-Snape and SIBLING to produce a tote bag featuring a text work by Gothe-Snape and a sweater by SIBLING. Four posters from Some Posters from the NGV will also be available to purchase during the Fair. Other exciting editions will be available at the NGV design store, to be announced in the coming weeks.