About

HEAD – Geneva is organizing the 4th edition of P.A.G.E.S. art book and contemporary print fair. More than 100 publishers, artists, and designers will gather from 2 to 4 February 2024 in Le Cube, a 1200 m2 exhibition space located on the HEAD campus.

P.A.G.E.S. is an event where you can buy art and design publications, prints, fanzines, posters, comics, magazines, newspapers, limited editions, and other printed objects. Above all, it is a space for exchange and creation around print – an opportunity to meet!

Location

HEAD – Genève
Espace Hippomène
7 avenue de Châtelaine,
1203 Geneva, Switzerland

Free entry.

Fair opening hours

Friday 2 February 2024
16:00 – 21:00
Saturday 3 February 2024
12:00 – 19:00
Sunday 4 February 2024
12:00 – 17:00

C H I L D H O O D

For the 2024 edition, the program of the show will revolve around the theme of "Childhood." P.A.G.E.S. will not become a children’s book fair but its program will be tinged with mischief, youth, playfulness, and perhaps even nostalgia… Among other events, an exhibition organized by Pierre Leguillon from the collection of the Musée des Erreurs in Brussels will present artists' publications, exhibition catalogs, and various artifacts made by children. A selection of books published by the editors of the show around the theme of Childhood will also be available in a playful reading space, specially designed by the Department of Interior Architecture of the HEAD. A series of workshops dedicated to the discovery of the practice of the artist’s book will be offered to all ages. Finally, this year the conference program is transformed into a meeting space where tangible experiences are shared. Tables will also be available for children who would like to sell or exchange their creations. This new edition of P.A.G.E.S. is open to all audiences, whether they are art and design book lovers, curious children, or neighbors.

Events

Exhibitions and installations

Le MuSé de la ReAD
(This Is Not The End)
Pierre Leguillon

A serpentine exhibition imagined by Pierre Leguillon, with Anaïs Chappelet and Alex Balgiu, from the collections of the Museum of Errors, Brussels, and artifacts lent by the artists-teachers and the staff of the HEAD -Geneva. Pierre Leguillon, a teacher at HEAD, proposes an exhibition based on the collection of the Musée des Erreurs (Museum of Errors), which he founded in Brussels in 2013. It will present a wide and free selection of printed objects: artist publications, exhibition catalogs, educational books, coloring books, posters, birth announcements, engravings, puzzles, scrapbooks, etc. Including various artifacts made by children – some who are now famous artists – but also by HEAD teachers themselves when they were children, or by their own children. The design of the exhibition is realized in collaboration with the graphic designer Anaïs Chappelet. Finally, Alex Balgiu, who defines himself as an active reader, poet-printer, and bibliomaniac-radiophone, will twice «perform» certain works from his collection echoing those presented in the exhibition. Several books on display will be available at the stands of many of the fair's publishers – from Switzerland, France, Germany, or Japan – or at the stand of Parisian publisher and bookseller Delpire & Co.

Finding form
An installation of the Interior Architecture Department

Finding Form is a project developed during a workshop where four Interior Architecture students imagined and created a fun reading space. An inflated landscape, inspired by the deployment of the bouncy castles of our childhood will present a selection of books and offer the opportunity for visitors of all ages not only to sit and read but also to use the space as they wish. Project managers: Cécile-Diama Samb (Sapid Studio), Paule Perron (minor architects), Maria Clara Castioni (Leggera). Students: Aline Blanc, Chaewon Kim, Narcisse Malumba, Taiana Broillet. Director of the Department: Javier Fernández Contreras Scientific Assistant of the Department: Valentina De Luigi.

Littérature jeunesse libre
Association 7/7

The 7/7 association proposes a selection of children’s books that offer a close representation of the world around us. This library is about putting books in the hands of children that convey values of tolerance, love, respect, and living together. This library has almost a hundred books of different formats for 4 to 10-year-olds. The selection will be made available to the public in the installation developed by the Interior Architecture Department.

Génération Fanzines
Collection Norbert Moutier
CNFE (Centre National du Fanzine d'Enfant)

This exhibition compares several collections of editions made by children during the 20th and 21st centuries. The 133 original booklets of the series Vampire realized by Norbert Moutier between 1956 and 1958 dialogue with the selection of fanzines addressed to the CNFE (National Center of Children's Fanzines) initiated in 2019 by the publisher of children’s books and comics L'Articho and the Formula Bula comic festival. The exhibition showcases diversity amongst the children’s publications, but also ways to stimulate and enhance the creativity of children and teenagers, in order to develop fanzine culture and the Do It Yourself spirit from an early age. Through the CNFE-organized fanzine competitions and a constant search for unique children’s creations, Yassine de Vos has curated an unparalleled collection around the practice of children’s micro-editions. All the while, after collecting the 1,000 original booklets produced by Norbert Moutier, Xavier Girard is conducting research that sheds light on the birth of zine practices in France, after the Second World War.

Lost and Found
Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig (HGB)

Search for traces in the graphic workshops of the Leipzig School of Graphic Design and Book Art. The stand of the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig (HGB) focuses on the representation and progressive visualization of the graphic workshops as an integral part of the artistic, creative, and content-related debate. Large-format graphics from the "Woodcuts XXL" project demonstrate the spatial possibilities of woodcuts and open up new spaces for experiencing artistic printmaking.
Another intervention refers to the power of the book, whose constant questioning and development the study of the HGB invites. The legitimacy of the printed word is still undisputed. As an element of exchange and action, a Korrex printing press from HEAD - Genève will be part of the presentation. As an active moment of mediation, we invite you to an open, performative printing process - in the belief in the book as a means of expression in terms of content and society. The leaflet will take center stage and be a medium of political debate. The printing of a statement, demand, or argument on paper can and must be seen as an important part of empowerment and community, especially in today's world.

Installations proposed by HEAD students

During a transversal course, 11 students from the Visual Art, Visual Communication, and Interior Architecture departments developed three participatory installations inspired by the theme of Childhood that will be used to discover and experiment during the show.

Olha Melnyk, Nina Wandoch, Julien Aebischer, Carolina Rodrigues, Taiana Broillet, Louis Zahra, Jasmine Rigo, Emilie Liechti, Loïc Philéas Pelvat

The Kids Table

A table is also freely available for children wishing to sell or exchange their creations, whether designed on-site or beforehand. All children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Analog meetings

This year, the conference program will transform into a space to meet and share tangible experiences with our invitees, who will evoke the theme of Childhood via their different editorial projects.

Saturday (03.02.2024)

14:00 – Marion Bataille

Marion Bataille is a graphic designer and author of books, exhibitions, films, and workshops for children. She will present her work in which manipulation holds a large role.
marionbataille.com

15:00 – Sophie Cure and Aurélien Farina

"First play, graphic objects with variable geometry."
Sophie Cure is a graphic designer and artist. Nourished by the performing arts, she develops a transdisciplinary practice at the crossroads of typography, publishing and performance. Aurélien Farina is a graphic designer. He founded the studio Paper! Tiger! , specializing in editorial design. Together, they co-wrote the Cahier d'exploration graphique and the Carnets à jouer collection, published by Éditions B42, as well as the game Starting Blocks pour le Signe, the national graphics centre. These objects address themes specific to graphic design by offering series of games without right or wrong answers. During this exchange, they will present projects in which they develop a pedagogical approach based on intuition, play and pleasure to do.
editions-b42.com

16:00 – Benjamin Sommerhalder (Nieves)

Nieves is a publishing house based in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 2001, Nieves publishes artists' books and zines. Benjamin Sommerhalder of Nieves will show a selection of Zines from the publishing house and have a conversation about Nieves and publishing in general. 

nieves.ch

17:00 – Vincent Romagny and Laurent Abecassis
(Co-founder of éditions Burn-Août)

In November 2023, Editions Burn-Août published "Politiser l'enfance," edited by Vincent Romagny, a reader featuring previously unpublished texts, translations, and reprints of unavailable texts that take a variety of approaches (philosophical, sociological, militant, artistic, etc.) to the question of politicizing childhood, both in terms of those that need to be rejected and those that need to be defended. On the occasion of the PAGES exhibition, we'll be looking back at its genesis, and in particular at the research of researcher and activist Tal Piterbraut-Merx, who inspired and motivated the project.
editionsburnaout.fr

17:45 – Vincent Romagny and Marie Proyart

"How to conceive jointly by a graphic designer and a publisher an anthology on playgrounds, first on a question whose contours are difficult to identify (Anthology Playgrounds of artists, 2010, Infolio) and then on a question whose different challenges are more precisely identified - and that it is then necessary to rethink the entire organization (Anthologie Aires de jeux au Japon, Tombolo Presses, 2019)? How to conceive each time these anthologies when their publisher systematically sends in the documents late to the graphic designer? [this last question will be more specifically addressed by the graphic designer)."

Sunday (04.02.2024)

14:00 – Fanette Mellier and Alexandre Chaize
Éditions du livre

Panorama is a singular book, which proposes the contemplation of the same landscape, printed 24 times. Page after page, the colorful variations reveal the passage of the hours and the micro-adventures of life. From the mild heat of a spring afternoon to the night frost, nature awakens and falls asleep. Observing the details becomes child’s play: a cottage, a clock, a cat, a ball, a glowworm…
Fanette Mellier and Alexandre Chaize of Éditions du livre retrace the genesis of Panorama and its adaptation into a cartoon.
editionsdulivre.com

15:30 – Xavier Girard and Yassine de Vos
Fanzines Generation

This discussion will be an opportunity to talk about the role of zines made by children and teenagers. Yassine de Vos (L'articho) will talk about the work of the National Child Fanzine Center (CNFE) and the importance of developing fanzine culture and the DIY spirit ( Do It Yourself ) from an early age. Xavier Girard will witness the progress of his research on the Norbert Moutier collection. Furthermore, this round table will discuss in detail the production of all the editions presented in the “Fanzines Generation” exhibition. In particular, it will introduce the decisive role of adults (families, teachers...) in the development of children’s publishing practices.

Workshops for all ages

Visitors can sign up for our workshops for free by writing an email to contact@p-a-g-e-s.ch. Please indicate the title of the workshop that you and/or your child would like to participate in, as well as your name, age, email address and telephone number.

Throughout the fair

How do we print?
Alex Balgiu x Association Presse Offset

Number of participants: by groups of 4
Age: open to all ages

The reader-printer Alex Balgiu and the Offset Press Association invite you to a workshop of poetic creation, printed with hybrid, diverted, and unexpected equipment. The workshop will be focused on the materiality of language and living texts from a selection of fragments for all ages, from Ruth Krauss to Gertrude Stein, through extracts from Célestin Freinet’s teaching bands, unfolded for the occasion. Meet at the ink fountain ⛲️

Stories with Supereditions

Number of participants: unlimited
Age: open to all

The workshop will provide books containing funny stories written by Sandra Lanilis. Your role is to have fun illustrating them! You will get unique books to offer or to keep preciously. Every day of the show will focus on a new illustration technique: pencil, paper cutouts, collages, or colors!

Typopicto
Rémi Bergé

Number of participants: unlimited
Age: from 6 years old

This is a workshop of drawing letters in which we will use the trace-forms TYPOPICTO, created especially for this use. From a repertoire of 35 combinable geometric shapes, TYPOPICTO allows to easily draw writing characters, numbers, symbols and a multitude of patterns. Open to all ages, this workshop addresses the relationship between writing and drawing, and explores the relationship between text and image.

Friday (02.02.2024)

16:00 – 19:00
Carré mains carré mains
Option Re/Production & Garance Grand-Leger

Number of participants: up to 8 people (4 pairs) per workshop
Age: one adult and one child (4+) in each pair

The students of the Re/ Production Option and Garance Grand-Leger invite you to discover a natural dyeing technique through textile drawing. On a square of fabric lined with colors, between four hands, through drawing, writing, and reserve, the beige fabric, soaked with gall nuts, darkens little by little. Almost magical and minimalist, the pattern appears, light gray, gray, dark gray, black. The square, which can be taken with you, could become a scarf, maybe an image, perhaps a flag. Let’s dip our hands in the basins, rinse, rinse, and wring well!

Saturday (03.02.2024)

13:30 – 15:30, 16:30–18:00
Sound Fiction
From comic book to soundtrack
Xavier Girard & Paul Laurent

Number of participants: 12 places per workshop
Age: children from 9 years

Unknown until its discovery at a flea market, the Norbert Moutier collection brings together 1000 comics, handcrafted in the 1950s by a child from the age of 9 to 19. During this workshop, through audio, the idea is to give life to the stories imagined by young Norbert in the 1950s with the voices of today. Each small team chooses one of the 133 episodes of the series Vampire, and will then be accompanied through a shooting during which they will improvise the characters (superheroes, cowboys, bandits and spies), make the sound effects, the credits, and the advertisements of the magazines – all through audio. After a speed montage, a listening session will take place on Sunday afternoon, and all the sound fiction will be put online.

To get an idea: soundcloud.com/vampire_edpm

12:00 – 15:00
Carré mains carré mains
Option Re/Production & Garance Grand-Leger

Number of participants: up to 8 people (4 pairs) per workshop
Age: one adult and one child (4+) in each pair

The students of the Re/ Production Option and Garance Grand-Leger invite you to discover a natural dyeing technique through textile drawing. On a square of fabric lined with colors, between four hands, through drawing, writing, and reserve, the beige fabric, soaked with gall nuts, darkens little by little. Almost magical and minimalist, the pattern appears, light gray, gray, dark gray, black. The square, which can be taken with you, could become a scarf, maybe an image, perhaps a flag. Let’s dip our hands in the basins, rinse, rinse, and wring well!

13:30 – 15:00
Graphic exploration
Sophie Cure & Aurélien Farina

Number of participants: 15 people
Age: from 6 years old

How is a typographic character drawn? What distinguishes character families? What are pictograms for? Sophie Cure and Aurélien Farina’s "Cahier d'exploration graphique" and "Carnets à jouer," published by Editions B42, offer a series of experiences without good or bad answers to discover graphic design. This workshop offers some games extracted from these works: typographic constellations to be linked, meshes, crests, alliances, and letters to complete.

14:00 – 16:00
La Cabane
Master Trans

Number of participants: unlimited
Age: from 3 to 17 years

La Cabane offers discovery workshops (free access) with drawing on sheets to continue the development of the Cabane and its perpetual transformation. These workshops will take place inside the Cabane which will remain accessible at all times as a place of reading and meeting, where a selection of books from the P.A.G.E.S. festival will be made available.

16:30 – 18:00
Starting Blocks
Sophie Cure & Aurélien Farina

Number of participants: 6 people per round / 3 rounds
Age: from 10 years

Starting blocks is a board game designed by Sophie Cure and Aurélien Farina for the Signe, national center of graphic design. Graphic designers are competing for creative tournaments refereed by a sponsor. For the duration of an order, participants slip into the shoes of a graphic designer or take the place of the sponsor to manipulate one of the graphic designers' work tools: the composition grids. This workshop offers some games animated by the authors. Be careful, the journey is fraught with pitfalls: no one is immune to a hardware failure or burglary!

Sunday (04.02.2024)

12:00 – 15:00
Carré mains carré mains
Option Re/Production & Garance Grand-Leger

Number of participants: up to 8 people (4 pairs) per workshop
Age: one adult and one child (4+) in each pair

The students of the Re/ Production Option and Garance Grand-Leger invite you to discover a natural dyeing technique through textile drawing. On a square of fabric lined with colors, between four hands, through drawing, writing, and reserve, the beige fabric, soaked with gall nuts, darkens little by little. Almost magical and minimalist, the pattern appears, light gray, gray, dark gray, black. The square, which can be taken with you, could become a scarf, maybe an image, perhaps a flag. Let’s dip our hands in the basins, rinse, rinse, and wring well!

15:00 – 17:00
La Cabane
Master Trans

Number of participants: unlimited
Age: from 3 to 17 years

La Cabane offers discovery workshops (free access) with drawing on sheets to continue the development of the Cabane and its perpetual transformation. These workshops will take place inside the Cabane which will remain accessible at all times as a place of reading and meeting, where a selection of books from the P.A.G.E.S. festival will be made available.

Exhibitors

Info

P.A.G.E.S 2019, © Michel Giesbrecht

Location

HEAD – Genève
Espace Hippomène
7 avenue de Châtelaine,
1203 Geneva, Switzerland

Opening hours

Friday 2 February 2024
16:00 – 21:00
Saturday 3 February 2024
12:00 – 19:00
Sunday 4 February 2024
12:00 – 17:00
Free entry.

Access from Cornavin station

Bus 10, 19 and 6 direction "Vernier" stop "Guye"

Bus stops nearby

Guye: bus 10, 19 et 6
Les Ouches: bus 22, 19 et 6

Steering committee

Rémi Brandon
Dimitri Broquard
Julie Enckell Julliard
Xavier Erni
Linda Forestieri
Pierre Leguillon
Anette Lenz
Clément Paurd
Fabienne Radi
Didier Rittener
Julietta Saccardi
Julien Tavelli

Coordination

Julietta Saccardi
Linda Forestieri

Art direction

Xavier Erni

Contact

contact@p-a-g-e-s.ch
+41 22 558 58 79
Instagram: @p.a.g.e.s_artbook_fair

Images (random order)

  • Lilliput, octobre-novembre 1953, Hulton Press, Londres
  • Pascal Doury, L’Encyclopédie des images, fanzine, n.d.
  • Philippe Weisbecker, Élémentaire/Upside Down, Fotokino, Marseille, 2023
  • Partir du muscle, CAC Brétigny, 2023 (design Coline Sunier et Charles Mazé)
  • Nathalie Du Pasquier, How Many, Rookie Books, Bâle, 2022
  • Jochen Gerner, Color Me, Sémiose éditions, Paris, 2023
  • Dire, écrire, lire, 2011
  • Documentation céline duval, le cahier du dimanche, Houlgate, 2006
  • Gouache sur papier quadrillé, Agnès, 2021
  • Documentation céline duval, le cahier du dimanche, Houlgate, 2006
  • Coloriage anonyme
  • Autoportrait, Agnès, 2023
  • Feutre sur papier ligné, Agnès, 2022
  • A Child of Six Could Do It, The Tate Gallery, London, 1973
  • Anonyme, photographie de presse, Tours, c. 1960