Building BooksA special exhibition of works exploring the editorial research and experimental practice of prolific Italian publisher Corraini Edizioni

New York, N.Y. (August 11, 2026) – School of Visual Arts (SVA), next month, will welcome “Building Books,” a special exhibition of works exploring the editorial research and experimental practice of prolific Italian publisher Corraini Edizioni. Presented by SVA Galleries and MFA Illustration as Visual Essay in partnership with the publisher, “Building Books” will be on view through Monday, September 28, 2026, across the SVA Flatiron Gallery and Windows from Tuesday, September 8, and the Flatiron Project Space from Wednesday, September 2, 133/141 West 21st Street, New York City. A reception will be held at the gallery on Tuesday, September 8, from 5:00 to 8:00pm.

“I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to co-curate this exhibition with Pietro Corraini,” says MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Chair Riccardo Vecchio. “Their catalog has shaped my artistic education, and I believe there's no better moment to bring Corraini's 50-year legacy of creative and cultural entrepreneurship to SVA. Introducing our students to a publisher that has spent decades demonstrating that creativity and financial ingenuity are not opposing forces, but partners in sustaining an independent cultural vision.”

“Corraini is an editorial workshop that has been designing, imagining, and building books for over fifty years, and we are grateful for this partnership with SVA to invite a wider audience into our visionary world,” says Pietro Corraini, publisher and art director. “In Corraini's universe, books are more than objects to be read: they become building blocks for stories that shape meaning and inspire curiosity.”

For more than 50 years, Corraini Edizioni has worked across the porous boundaries that connect art, design, illustration, and children's culture, transforming each publication into a laboratory for visual, tactile, and conceptual experimentation. “Building Books” is an examination of the physical and constructive nature of bookmaking: just as complex structures can be assembled from building blocks, books can serve as the starting point for intricate creative projects. The exhibition unfolds as an open dialogue between design, authorial illustration, and the international graphic arts scene. More than a survey of book covers, “Building Books” reflects on how the printed page can become a visual artwork, an installation, and a space to be explored.

Through the work of artists and designers including Louise Fili, Bruno Munari, Martì Guixé, and Enzo Mari, the exhibition demonstrates how publishing can extend beyond the book's conventional form and into the realm of spatial and experiential design. Walls of books, illustrations, and reproductions will be on display alongside a comprehensive history of Corraini, posters in the main gallery. The Project Space will host an immersive installation that translates the visual and tactile experience of Munari’s seminal 1968 picture book Circus in the Mist into three-dimensional space. Drawing on the book’s innovative use of translucent vellum and perforated paper, the installation guides visitors through the milky opacity of Milan’s fog, before gradually emerging into the vibrant, colorful world of the circus.

“Photographs, postcards, and films from that period have faded with time. Their colors have deteriorated, and their contrasts softened. Munari's book, remarkably, has not,” says Vecchio of Circus in the Mist. “The brilliant color stock paper, the vellum, the cutouts, and the writing retain exactly the intensity I remember from childhood. I credit Munari for deepening my appreciation of grey, not as the absence of color, but as a color itself.”

In conjunction with “Building Books,” a series of talks and workshops on the intersections of publishing, illustration, design, and contemporary visual culture will take place throughout the month. For more information, visit sva.edu.

The SVA Flatiron Gallery and Windows, and Flatiron Project Space are open Monday through Saturday, 10:00am–6:00pm. The windows are viewable from the sidewalk.

About Corraini Edizioni

Corraini Edizioni is a publishing house and an art gallery, as well as a space for experimentation and research: a “publishing workshop” open to artists, illustrators, and designers, from both Italy and abroad, to create books, art, and design projects. Corraini Edizioni's publishing work ranges from design to art and illustration, often blurring the boundaries between the different disciplines. Their catalog includes books and objects by Bruno Munari, Martí Guixé, Enzo Mari, Bob Gill, Giosetta Fioroni, Ettore Sottsass, Paul Rand, Andrea Branzi, Steven Heller, Steven Guarnaccia, Alessandro Mendini, Alfredo Jaar, Italo Lupi, Daniel Eatock, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Antonio Marras, Paul Cox, Michele De Lucchi, Suzy Lee, Francesco Simeti, Luigi Veronesi, Riccardo Dalisi, Gabriele Basilico, Esther Lee, Taro Gomi, Richard McGuire, Taro Miura, Harriet Russell, Keri Smith, Yocci, Fausto Gilberti, Andrea Antinori, MOS Architects, Peter Mendelsund, and many others.

The School of Visual Arts has been a leader in the education of artists, designers, and creative professionals for more than seven decades. With a faculty of distinguished working professionals, a dynamic curriculum, and an emphasis on critical thinking, SVA is a catalyst for innovation and social responsibility. With over 44,000 alumni from some 130 countries, SVA also represents one of the most influential artistic communities in the world. For information about the College’s 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, visit sva.edu.

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BUILDING BOOKS

Corraini Edizioni: Children, Art, Design, and Everything Else

Tuesday, September 8 – Monday, September 28, 2026

SVA Flatiron Gallery and Windows

Bruno Munari’s Circus in the Mist (Nella Nebbia di Milano)

Wednesday, September 2 – Monday, September 28, 2026

SVA Flatiron Project Space

133/141 West 21st Street, New York City

Reception: Tuesday, September 8, 2026, 5:00 – 8:00pm