An international festival of small and medium size quality publishers, an

encounter of book production professionals and a grandiose celebration

of pictorial books and illustrations will take place in Czech historic town of

Tábor during the last weekend of this year.

As usual, TABOOK discovers and presents key actors of the contemporary

independent book scene, the wide scale of quality publishing and all

associated activities.

This year TABOOK will explore the existence of humor as well as its kin

relations of grotesque and satire in Czech literature and society. We seek

to establish articulations with this historical genre specificity through the

work of authors and artist who do not fall victim to the ubiquitous self-

centered academism, self-fascination and loss of sense for humor. There

are not many of them, some being quite old in age while the younger

ones are more like trouvères. Within the framework of our tradition, this

year´s TABOOK is concentrated on Poland as well as Polish-marked

Ostrava region and on the promising development of the genre of now

book reportage which in a way substitutes deteriorating media.

And since we – like every year – deal with pictorial books and illustrations,

we would like to point out a few such publications that call for the

reader´s active participation or suggest various other ways how to read

and work with pictorial images.