Melbourne Art Book Fair to return with city-wide program in May

The Melbourne Art Book Fair will return in May with an expanded city-wide program celebrating independent publishing, graphic design and creative experimentation, bringing together local and international publishers, artists and writers for 10 days of events across Melbourne.

Running from May 14 to 24 at NGV International and venues across the city, the 2026 edition of the fair will feature exhibitions, workshops, talks, book launches and performances, alongside its popular annual Stallholder Fair in the gallery’s Great Hall.

The Stallholder Fair, running from May 15 to 17, is again expected to be the centrepiece of the program, transforming the NGV into a bustling marketplace of books and ideas with publishers from Australia and overseas. Organisers say this year’s event will place a particular spotlight on imprints from East and South-East Asia, as well as the Latin American diaspora in Australia.

Among the publishers featured in this year’s program are Giramondo, Perimeter, Books at Manic, Arts Projects Australia, Bruno from Italy, Salt and Pepper from Japan, Spector Books from Germany and Binatang Press from Indonesia. The fair will also include stalls from Further Reading in Bandung, Grafis Nusantara in Jakarta, Cahyati Press in Bali, Tiny Studio in Jakarta and Paris, Imageless in Shanghai and Melbourne-based Mestizx Lab.

More than 21,500 people attended the three-day Stallholder Fair in 2025, underlining the growing popularity of the event on Melbourne’s cultural calendar.

This year’s fair will also feature a digital typographic installation by Chinese-born, Melbourne-based artist and designer Caesar Li, whose work explores the relationship between English and Chinese scripts and the way language intersects with identity, migration and cultural memory. His new commission will respond to the history of the “chop suey” typeface and its place in Australian design history and the Chinese diaspora community.

Another highlight will be an exhibition of posters from the archives of the International Poster Biennial of Mexico, curated by Australian and Latin creatives collective N0 R3PLY. A limited number of free posters will also be available to visitors. Artist and designer Blinkerfluid will create hand-drawn bookmarks live during the Stallholder Fair, producing 50 unique works each day for audiences to collect.

The broader program includes several special access events. The Original Art Book, to be held in the NGV’s conservation laboratories on May 15, will offer audiences a rare look at the gallery’s earliest illuminated manuscript, the Gospel of Theophanes, dating from around 1125 to 1150. Meanwhile, Front Row Access: KCP Fashion Archive on May 16 and 17 will provide a hands-on opportunity to explore a curated selection of rare historical fashion magazines from the Campbell-Pretty Fashion Research Collection.

Beyond the NGV, a series of satellite events will unfold across the city, including poetry readings, book launches and live conversations in bars, bookshops and creative venues.

NGV director Tony Ellwood said the fair had become a distinctive gathering point for the publishing, writing and reading community.

“The Melbourne Art Book Fair brings together the publishing, writing and reading community like no other event on our cultural calendar,” he said. “As the largest art book publisher in the southern hemisphere, the NGV is proud to have this platform for showcasing the work, talents and achievements of the global art book sector.”

Presented as part of Melbourne Design Week, the Melbourne Art Book Fair promises another strong celebration of books not just as objects, but as a meeting point for art, ideas and community.