MISS READ 2026: Berlin's Art Book Fair Turns Eighteen

A Landmark Edition for Independent Publishing

MISS READ, Europe's foremost event for artists' books and conceptual publications, marks its eighteenth year in 2026 with a move to silent green Kulturquartier in Berlin. Running from June 26 to 28, the fair gathers 235 exhibitors from 46 countries, forming one of the most internationally diverse assemblies for independent publishing anywhere in the world.

Founded in 2009, the festival has established itself as the continent's leading platform for artists' books, conceptual publications, and publishing understood as artistic, political, and poetic practice. Its mission centres on fostering global bibliodiversity — a term coined in analogy to biodiversity — describing the plurality of voices, forms, and perspectives in publishing as a counterweight to market concentration and cultural homogenisation.

Bibliodiversity as Guiding Principle

This year's edition places bibliodiversity at its core: publishing as artistic practice, the cultural plurality of experimental reading and writing, and the ecosystems that sustain independent production. The three-day public programme features lectures, panel discussions, performances, and book launches probing the boundaries of contemporary publishing.

In a continued effort to redistribute resources toward alternative practices, MISS READ awards BIPOC Support Grants to five outstanding recipients: BAZAR Art Books from Tehran, Chimurenga from Cape Town, microutopías from Montevideo, Tehran Zine, and zug press from Brooklyn.

Programme Highlights

The opening evening on Friday, June 26 features a panel discussion accompanying Dekoloniale: Erinnerungskultur in der Stadt, a 600-page volume examining Germany's colonial history with particular attention to Black resistance on the African continent and in the diaspora. Speakers include Mirja Memmen of Berlin Postkolonial, Danielle Rosales and Robin Coenen of visual intelligence, and Moses März from Universität Potsdam, moderated by Stefan Maneval.

Saturday, June 27 hosts the annual Conceptual Poetics Day, exploring the border between visual art and literature. A panel titled "Bibliodiversity in Magazines" brings together editors from three landmark independent publications — Pist Prootta/Space Poetry from Copenhagen, OEI from Stockholm, and Rab-Rab Press from Helsinki — discussing how magazines resist uniformity in form, politics, and memory. Further sessions examine ruptures in book forms and counter-bibliography as a radical democratic tool for collectivising knowledge, alongside a presentation on botanical documentation and colonial traces in East Asia.

On Sunday, June 28, the garden of silent green hosts a book launch by Shirin Sabahi in conversation with artist Vijai Maia Patchineelam, designer Manuel Raeder, and editor Elena Malzew. Other highlights include collective readings of dissident manifestos from South America, a session on independent photobook publishing across continents, and a presentation by Chimurenga on liberation networks shaped by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's agency in Brandfort. e-flux hosts the launch of the first English translation of Władysław Strzemiński's Theory of Seeing.

Pre-Fair and Radio Programme

From June 23 to 25, the pre-fair programme "Editing text · Editing sound" takes place at MISS READ Space in Berlin-Wedding, featuring workshops, sonic experiments, and discussions streamed online and via Cashmere Radio. Broadcasts continue live from silent green throughout the fair.

The 2026 edition is directed by Michalis Pichler with co-director Pascale Obolo. The fair poster is created by Na Kim, while Conceptual Poetics Day's poster is by yabeautdi10. Funding is provided by LOTTO-Stiftung.