Official Poster of the Tunis International Book Fair
A Contribution by Nja Mahdaoui
The official poster of this edition has been conceived as an artistic statement — a visual embodiment of the book as a symbol of human memory and a bridge between civilizations.
Nja Mahdaoui was invited to create this official poster, honoring the Fair with an original artwork. Through it, he gives expression to his singular aesthetic vision of the Arabic letter — not as a linguistic sign, but as an autonomous plastic element that ascends into a vast expressive space, touching the symbolic, spiritual, and aesthetic dimensions of human experience. This choice speaks to the remarkable capacity of the Arabic letter, within Mahdaoui's practice, to transform itself into a visual language that celebrates knowledge and summons the depth of civilizational identity — in full harmony with the spirit of the Tunis International Book Fair as a space of thought, creativity, and dialogue.
The poster's visual composition is anchored by the drawing itself, as a resonant symbolic reference to the elevation of knowledge and the act of reading. Letters interweave and layer within a harmonious pictorial structure, evoking the opening of a book, the flow of thought, and the expansiveness of creative possibility. The background draws on the material texture of papyrus — the earliest known medium of writing — in a deliberate and meaningful invocation of the origins of knowledge and the earliest gestures of inscription. This choice lends the poster a historical and symbolic dimension, forging a continuum between the first act of writing and its contemporary horizon as an instrument of enlightenment and cultural exchange, affirming the book's enduring role as a carrier of human thought and a shared memory of civilizations across the ages.
The chromatic treatment of the letters — marked by transparency, gradation, and fluidity — confers a visual depth that reflects the richness of intellectual traditions and the diversity of cultural tributaries gathered under the Fair's roof, reinforcing its standing as a unifying space for creative expression and a platform for dialogue among literary, intellectual, and human experiences in all their breadth.