Bratislava, 27th of October 2025

A group of illustrators who have declared a boycott of BIB “for political reasons” has been spreading false and deliberately distorted information about BIB. We regret that we must once again address a conflict. This situation serves as an example of how facts and circumstances can be misused and misrepresented.. The latest disinformation concerns the questioning of awarding the BIB 2025 Plaque to Slovak illustrator Peter Uchnár for his book Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift. The group ASIL has also been addressing you, members of the BIB 2025 International Jury, the IBBY Executive Committee, and other professionals with the false claim that Peter Uchnár received the BIB 2025 award for the same illustrations as in 1999. Unfortunately, this represents yet another targeted attempt to damage the good name of BIB and its prestigious international reputation. BIBIANA and the Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava therefore publicly request an apology for these false and factually unfounded statements, which damage the reputation of the illustrator Peter Uchnár, as well as the integrity and professional reputation of the BIB institution and its organizers.

We therefore consider it important to provide you with verifiable, factual information:

1. The book Gulliver’s Travels (2023, Slovart Publishing) is not a reprint of Gulliver’s Travels I published in 1998. The 1998 edition (Slovenský spisovateľ Publishing) included only two books and contained 19 illustrations by Peter Uchnár, which were awarded at BIB 1999. The 2023 edition (Slovart Publishing) is a new, complete edition of Gulliver’s Travels comprising all four books , with 119 illustrations by Peter Uchnár. It includes 100 new illustrations that have never been exhibited or awarded at BIB.

2. The 2023 edition of Gulliver’s Travels represents an entirely new artistic concept. Peter Uchnár’s new illustrative vision approaches Gulliver’s Travels as a complete work, encompassing all four of its stories.

3. In line with the new concept of Gulliver’s Travels, Peter Uchnár reinterpreted 19 illustrations from the 1998 edition of the book. This reinterpretation represents a legitimate creative act — an authorial artistic transformation grounded in the new conceptual vision of the book. In 2008, an edition of Gulliver´s Travels was published by Rider´s Digest with approximately 70 illustrations by Peter Uchnár,

which, however, had never been in the BIB competition and were also conceived for the formally different character of the book.

4. The international competition BIB 2025 features new, original illustrations by Peter Uchnár. Not a single artwork exhibited at BIB 2025 has ever been shown in any previous edition of BIB. The illustrations were created using a combination of analogue and digital techniques.

5. The BIB International Jury always evaluates the original illustrations officially submitted to the international competition and physically exhibited at the Biennial. No individual or institution has any influence over the Jury’s deliberations or decisions.

6. The new complete edition of Gulliver’s Travels (2023) presented at BIB 2025 fully complies with the BIB Statutes and Organization order. It is not a reprint. The book was published within the prescribed eligibility period of the past two years. Paragraph 7/ „The illustrators taking part in the BIB for the first time may choose book illustrations from their works created during last five years. The illustrators who take part repeatedly may choose only works published between 2023-2025.“

7. The group ASIL has been deliberately spreading disinformation about BIB, claiming that Peter Uchnár received the BIB 2025 award for the same illustrations as in 1999. Their statement omits essential facts about the new project — in particular, about the number of illustrations 119- 19 and the fact that Peter Uchnár reinterpreted his illustrations in an original way.

Curatorial and Artistic Justification of the Award

The awarded artist, who received the Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava (BIB) prize in 1999 for his visual interpretation of Gulliver’s Travels, returned to the same work after more than two decades — not as to a closed chapter, but as to a living organism evolving together with his artistic vision, technique, and experience.

The new edition includes 100 new illustrations, which expand the book’s visual universe with new layers of meaning, expression, and interpretation. Nineteen original illustrations were revised, modified, and transformed within the context of the artist’s contemporary visual thinking. This is not a reuse of older material, but an act of re-visioning — a reinterpretation in which the artist revisits his earlier work with temporal distance, a renewed visual language, and a different philosophical outlook.

In the history of art, the revisiting of one’s own work is a common and respected phenomenon. Artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Slovak illustrator Dušan Kállay

repeatedly reinterpreted and re-illustrated the same literary texts, with each version representing a new and independent artistic statement. Such “returns” are not repetitions, but dialogues with the past — a continuation of a creative process that is never truly complete.

The Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava recognizes not only technical mastery but also artistic contribution and innovative approach to visual storytelling. The awarded work should therefore not be viewed as a re-recognition of an earlier achievement, but as an acknowledgment of a new, full-value cycle of illustrations — one that builds upon the original work, yet transcends and transforms it.

In the new edition, the artist does not appear as an “illustrator who repeats himself,” but as the creator of a new visual universe, born of inner evolution, technological maturity, and a deepened understanding of Gulliver’s story. It is a distinct, autonomous, and original work, meeting all the criteria for recognition as a new artistic contribution.

Legal Context and Justification

According to the Copyright Act No. 185/2015 Coll. on Copyright and Related Rights, Sections 7 and 8, the author holds the exclusive right to adapt, modify, or otherwise transform their work, and to create a derivative work that constitutes an independent piece of authorship.

An adapted or expanded edition of illustrations for a literary work is therefore considered a new original creation, bearing the marks of the author’s unique style, originality, and creative input.

From a legal perspective, the 2023 edition of Gulliver’s Travels, containing 100 new illustrations and modified earlier works, must therefore be regarded as a new copyrighted work, not as a reprint or repetition of the original.

This principle is also recognized in international frameworks such as the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Article 2, Paragraph 3), which grants authors the right to create and protect derivative works while preserving their autonomous value.

Similarly, the rules of major international illustration competitions — including the Bologna Ragazzi Award, the Illustrators Exhibition Bologna, and the Andersen Award — have repeatedly recognized artists who returned to the same literary text after years, provided their new works represented a new artistic treatment and were judged independently from previous editions.

For these reasons, the award presented in 2025 is fully legitimate, as it reflects a new artistic achievement, a new body of work, and a new aesthetic value that brings a contemporary, personal, and artistically mature perspective into the world of illustration.

Conclusion

The curatorial and legal arguments converge on the same point: The artist was not awarded twice for the same work, but for two distinct artistic interpretations of the same literary text, created in different historical, cultural, and personal contexts.

Just as Gulliver returns from his voyages with a new understanding of the world, the artist, too, returns to his own work — not to repeat it, but to relive it anew, in a different, deeper, and more contemporary way.

Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava, an international competitive exhibition of original illustrations of books for children and young people

BIBIANA, International House of Art for Children

Peter Uchnar - Public statement, Gulliver's Travels 2025-.pdf

Oficiálne Stanovisko BIBIANY a vedenia Bienále ilustrácií Bratislava k oceneniu Petra Uchnára na BIB 2025

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Oficiálne Stanovisko BIBIANY a vedenia Bienále ilustrácií Bratislava k oceneniu Petra Uchnára na BIB 2025