In April 2016, the Bologna Children’s Book Fair held a jubilee exhibition: Artists and Masterpieces of Illustration, 50 Illustrators’ Exhibitions 1967-2016, presenting fifty works for the fifty-year anniversary of the competition.

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is the world’s largest children’s literature event. Every year it holds the prestigious Bologna Ragazzi Award competition for illustrators and authors. Every year around three thousand submissions come in. From these, a jury of specialists chooses a few dozen works to make up an exhibition of illustrations presented during the fair. Being selected by this jury is a major distinction for artists, whether they are recognized and famous, or debutantes for whom the competition might be the beginning of a career.

Many of the artists presented at the exhibition are unknown to Polish readers. Nonetheless, you will surely recognize illustrations from the cult books about a very hungry caterpillar or a checkered elephant. Among those presented is a poster artist who is well known in Poland, and an illustrator who even received an Oscar. 

Children’s literature is written in words and pictures. And much as the words introduce children to the world of books, their illustrations shape their aesthetic sensitivities, as was perhaps best phrased by one of the artists, Kvĕta Pacovska: “A picture book is the first art gallery that a child visits.”