The International House of Art for Children in Bratislava has announced this year’s winners of the Most Beautiful Books of Slovakia contest. (source: Bibiana)
When glancing through a huge pile of new titles in a bookstore, one of the first things that makes a reader pick up a book, unless they know the writer, is the cover.
The International House of Art for Children in Bratislava, commonly known as Bibiana, has announced this year’s winners of the Most Beautiful Books of Slovakia contest, first held in 1965.
“The aim of the competition is to support and appreciate the increase of the artistic level and quality of polygraphic processing of non-periodical publications in the form of a book,” said Eva Cíferská from Bibiana.
For the overall artistic and technical quality, The Bible (Biblia), published by IKAR, was named Slovakia’s most beautiful book of 2020.
Cats flying to Canada
Seven other awards in categories such as best illustrations, best graphic design, and most beautiful textbook, were also handed out.
Karol Felix won an award for his illustrations in Erik Ondrejička’s bookZa jedinou vetou (Behind a Single Sentence), and the Buvik publishing house took home an award for the most beautiful children’s book, Mačky letia do Kanady (Cats Flying to Canada), written by Jaroslava Blažková.
The LiberaTerra publishing house was awarded a prize for the most beautiful textbook, Škola v prírode (Nature School), by Ľubica Demčáková.
Twenty most beautiful books
The jury of 15 experts examined the 137 books submitted to the competition before they selected a 20 books across genres, along with seven student works, that met demanding the artistic and technical criteria.
“While the biggest number of contestants belonged to the category of children’s and juvenile books and fiction, the highest quality candidates were found in the category of books on visual arts and among visual publications,” said artist Igor Piačka, who chaired the jury.
Some of the books from the compilation were then recommended for awards in eight categories.
