Illustrated Stories on Display: How Exhibitions Speak

This seminar series explores exhibitions as rhetorical arenas where images and illustrations tell stories. Scholars and curators show how visual narratives persuade, move, and invite audiences into dialogue.

Hi! Picture This!

The exhibition presented in Bologna (30.3-15.4.2025) introduced the imaginative worlds of a new generation of Polish illustrators. Fifteen artists, already accomplished yet still seeking to expand the horizons of their art, are shaping the aesthetic sensibilities of both young readers and adults. Curated by the art historian and critic Anita Wincencjusz-Patyna, the project brought together a series of commissions and collaborations: Dominika Czerniak-Chojnacka created a visual essay inspired by the city of Bologna (Bologna a testa in su), while Urszula Palusińska designed a specially commissioned poster for the occasion. In addition to these works, the programme featured workshops – Gosia Herba at the Salaborsa Library and Anna Kaźmirak at MAMbo – alongside Paweł Mildener’s solo exhibition at the Inuit gallery. The central focus was the group exhibition Hop, Hug, Hooray! New Children’s Book Illustration from Poland, which showcased the diversity and vitality of contemporary Polish picture-book art. The initiative was made possible through the collaboration of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Italian Hamelin Association, underscoring the importance of international exchange in children’s book illustration and its ability to foster cultural dialogue, artistic innovation, and new ways of seeing.
Anita Wincencjusz-Patyna is an art historian, critic, assistant professor, and Vice-Rector for Didactic and Student Affairs at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław. She is the author of key studies on Polish book illustration, including Station Illustration (2008) and To Find Images Relevant to Words (2019), and editor of Captains of Illustration (2019). As a curator, she has collaborated with leading cultural institutions in Poland and abroad, from Bratislava to Gdańsk and Warsaw. She is also an active member of IBBY and a frequent jury member in national book competitions.