“Culture Seriously Damages Ignorance”: in Naples the Biennale del Libro d’Artista goes pocket-sized
Friday, September 25, at 6:00 p.m., the vernissage of the Pocket Compact Mini Book Edition in the spaces of Lineadarte Officina Creativa. Over 90 artists from five continents, on show until October 19.
Naples, September 2026 – There’s a warning you usually find on cigarette packets, and Lineadarte Officina Creativa has stolen it and rewritten it in its own way: “Culture seriously damages ignorance.” That is the title – and, at the same time, the manifesto – of the new edition of the Biennale del Libro d’Artista, which on Friday, September 25, at 6:00 p.m., opens the doors of its historic venue at Via San Paolo 31, in the heart of the old town, for the vernissage of the Pocket Compact Mini Book Edition.
This is no ordinary edition. After eighteen years of generous formats and works that often covered entire walls, the Biennale conceived and curated by Giovanna Donnarumma and Gennaro Ippolito is putting itself in your pocket. Literally: the exhibition brings together mail art, fanzines, unique books, object books, silent books, visual poetry, ebooks, artist’s notebooks and artist’s boxes, all designed to fit in the palm of a hand rather than behind a display case. An exercise in subtraction that, as the curators explain, takes nothing away from the language of the artist’s book: it simply forces it to say everything with less space to work with.
More than 90 artists from five continents answered the call – from Italy, Brazil, Spain, the United States, Ireland, Hungary, France and Poland – together with a group of young authors: the students of class 3ᵃC of the Liceo Artistico Enzo Rossi in Rome, coordinated by their teacher Cristiana Maria Pompei, who bring to the exhibition their first encounter with the pocket format.
The Pocket Compact Mini Book Edition is not an isolated episode in the Biennale’s journey, but a step on the way toward its 8th edition, planned for 2027: a small-scale laboratory to test the resilience of a language – that of the artist’s book – which has always found a home at Lineadarte, between research, craft and experimentation.
Participating artists: Laura Agostini – Italy; Patrizia Aletta – Italy; Franco Altobelli – Italy; Andreina Argiolas – Italy; Alessia Ausiello – Italy; Ariberto Badaloni – Italy; Gianluca Badiani – Italy; Elisabetta Bertulli – Italy; Elvira Biatta – Italy; Maria Bifulco – Italy; Rovena Bocci – Italy; Leci Bohn – Brazil; Roberto Fabio Brucci – Italy; Annunziata Buggio – Italy; Alfonso Caccavale – Italy; Sirlei Caetano – Brazil; Maria Rosanna Cafolla – Italy; Antonio Caranti – Italy; Mara Caruso – Brazil; Enzo Catini – Italy; Maria Teresa Cazzaro – Italy; Rosaria Cecere – Italy; Stefania Chierici – Italy; Mario Cobàs (Carchini) – Italy; Patrizia Maria Cocchiarella – Italy; Barbara Conti – Italy; Carla Crosio – Italy; Anna Maria Cutolo – France; Flora D'Angelo – Italy; Antonio D'Antonio – Italy; Carmen Delle Donne – Italy; DESART2 (Alessandra Degni and Simona Sarti) – Italy; Anna Di Lauro – Italy; Carla Di Pardo – Italy; Franco Di Pede – Italy; Marcello Diotallevi – Italy; Giovanna Donnarumma – Italy; Maria Cristina Fasulo – Italy; Lara Favaro – Italy; Salvatore Fellino – Italy; Piera Fidentea – Italy; Elisa Forte – Italy; Sabrina Frison – Italy; Rosalie Gancie – United States; Grupo Gralha Azul – Brazil; Luiza Gutierrez – Brazil; Gennaro Ippolito – Italy; Benedetta Jandolo – Italy; Jussara Leite Kronbauer – Brazil; Maria Antonietta Letizia – Italy; Serse Luigetti – Italy; Tania Luzzatto – Brazil; Maria Manna – Italy; Erminia Marasca Soccol – Brazil; Alicante Mateos – Spain; Maria Teresa Mazzei – Italy; Kathleen McHugh – United States; Monica Michelotti – Italy; Annalisa Mitrano – Italy; Angelo Moscarino – Italy; Minsk Nasta Martyn – Poland; Sara Nicoletti – Italy; Enzo Pagano – Italy; Laura Pagliai – Italy; Pál Csaba & Pál András – Hungary; Patrizia Panizzolo – Italy; Chiara Pepe – Italy; Yagües Pepe – Spain; Adriana Perego – Italy; Ilaria Pergolesi – Italy; Sioban Piercy – Ireland; Bruno Pierozzi – Italy; Giuliana Polimeni – Italy; Cristiana Maria Pompei – Italy; Véronique Pozzi Painé – Italy; Giampiero Reverberi – Italy; Sabina Romanin – Italy; Mario Romano – Italy; Romina Russo – Italy; Roberto Scala – Italy; Carla Sello – Italy; Manuela Simoncelli – Italy; Lucia Spagnuolo – Italy; Jane Sperandio Balconi – Brazil; Gianna Maria Stellino – Italy; Ivana Storto – Italy; Maria do Carmo Toniolo Kuhn – Brazil; Enzo Trepiccione – Italy; Filippo Tufano – Italy; Ilia Tufano – Italy; Diana Isa Vallini – Italy; Nadir Valvach – Italy; Claudia Vianello – Brazil; Marina Vitolo – Italy.
Students of class 3ᵃC of the Liceo Artistico Enzo Rossi – Rome, coordinated by their teacher Cristiana Maria Pompei: Alice Antignano – Angelica Asis – Maria Giulia Caradan – Kristel Castillo – Eliana D'Agostino – Alessia Di Loreto – Gaia Floro – Angelica Frosi – Valentina Loddi – Chiara Massimiani – Caroline Paine – Arianna Piacitelli – Asia Pulsoni – Ayeza Rabino – Rachele Rubeis – Ginevra Vecchisi
Fact sheet
Exhibition: Biennale del Libro d’Artista – Pocket Compact Mini Book Edition, “Culture Seriously Damages Ignorance”
Curated by: Giovanna Donnarumma and Gennaro Ippolito
Vernissage: Friday, September 25, 2026, 6:00 p.m.
Exhibition period: September 25 – October 19, 2026
Venue: Lineadarte Officina Creativa, Via San Paolo 31, Naples
Info and participating artists: www.biennaledellibrodartista.org
Press office: Lineadarte Officina Creativa
Phone: 327 584 9181 – 334 283 9785
Email: lineadarte@gmail.com
Website: http://www.lineadarte-officinacreativa.org
Lineadarte Officina Creativa – Via San Paolo 31, 80138, Naples