Since 2024, in cooperation with the Croatian Designers Association, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) has organised the annual Croatian Best Book Design competition (Hrvatska lijepa knjiga). Every year, selected Croatian titles are presented at two major European book events – the Leipzig and Frankfurt Book Fairs.
The Leipzig Book Fair hosts the final round of the international competition organised by the German Book Art Foundation (Stiftung Buchkunst), together with an exhibition of the latest award-winning titles. The Frankfurt Book Fair, meanwhile, hosts the Book Art International exhibition, showcasing some of the world’s finest examples of book design.
To date, three Croatian titles have been shortlisted in the international competition: the 1996 edition of The Marvelous Adventures and Misadventures of Hlapić the Apprentice (Čudnovate zgode šegrta Hlapića), the classic work of Croatian children’s literature by four-time Nobel Prize nominee Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, designed by Mihajlo Arsovski; a 1997 publication documenting Pope John Paul II’s pastoral visit to Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sveti Otac Ivan Pavao II. u pastirskom pohodu 12. i 13. travnja 1997, Sarajevo, Bosna i Hercegovina), designed by Zoran Filipović; and Fiume Fantastika, published in 2021 and designed by Maša Poljanec and Leo Kirinčić.
To mark the 30th anniversary of NSK’s organisation of the Croatian Best Book Design competition and the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the German Book Art Foundation, an exhibition will be held in the Library’s Grand Lobby from 1 July to 31 August 2026. Admission is free.
