Frankfurter Buchmesse 2023

The annual Frankfurter Buchmesse took place from October 18th to 22th—this year for the 75th time. Once again, we had the pleasure to give it a visit and get inspired by beautiful books, interesting events, conferences, readings, talks, and performances, and to connect with plenty of people who are as passionate about books as we are.

This year’s guest of honor was Slovenia. With more than 70 events featuring Slovenian authors, poets, intellectuals, and the international literary scene, the Guest of Honor Pavilion drew huge crowds of fair-goers. Thanks to its two auditoriums and sustainable architecture, the pavilion brought not only the Guest of Honor motto “Honeycomb of Words” but also the Slovenian landscape to Frankfurt.

We were very happy to spot our own books, the Yearbook of Lettering #1, the latest issue of Slanted Magazine—#41 Amsterdam, Flexibel Visual Systems and the Typodarium—on display at the booth of our distributor Idea Books, one of our printers BALTO print, and at Verlag Hermann Schmidt.

As a way of keeping the Ukrainian book industry visible despite Russia’s war of aggression and demonstrating international solidarity, a 200-square-meter collective stand and a diverse program of events was organized for this year’s book fair. We were very happy about the opportunity to meet some of the Ukrainian creatives who support our upcoming issue of Slanted Magazin—#43 Ukraine in person, and to connect with more Ukrainians working in the creative field. We listened to an inspiring talk about book design by Anna Karnaukh (Telegraph Design), Carolin Blöink (Stiftung Buchkunst), and Oleg Gryshchenko (Pictoric), moderated by Yuliia Kozlovets (director of the Book Arsenal Festival).

The sheer mass of great, beautiful and inspiring books, possibilities and techniques was as always incredibly inspiring and we left the fair exhausted but happy with thousands of new impressions. We had a fantastic time at the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2023 and will definitely return next year! It will then take place from 16-20 October 2024, with Italy as the Guest of Honor.