Small world: Another way to make books

Editora y diseñadora gráfica. Trabajó 8 años en Imprenta Madero con el maestro Vicente Rojo. Fundó Petra Ediciones en Guadalajara en 1990. Fue Directora de Arte y Diseño del diario Siglo 21. Es diseñadora de la revista Luvina. Ha obtenido varios premios y reconocimientos nacionales e internacionales, entre otros, en 2014 recibió el Best Children’s Publisher of the Year, región Centro y Sudamérica en la 51 ° Feria del Libro para Niños de Boloña y tres New Horizon Award otorgados por la Feria de Boloña, el Premio FIL al Mérito Editorial 2015; el Premio de Diseño Editorial Latinoamericano 2016, Fundación del Libro, en la 42 ° Feria del Libro de Buenos Aires, el Premio Juan Pablos al Mérito Editorial 2017 otorgado por la Cámara Nacional de la Industria Editorial Mexicana. Algunos libros han sido seleccionados en “Los Mejores Libros para Niños” del Banco del Libro de Venezuela. En 2018 fue jurado de la Muestra de Ilustradores de la Feria de Boloña.

Born in Calcutta in 1956, Gita Wolf was educated in different cities in India, including New Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. She received her master’s degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Erlangen/Nuremberg, Germany. In 1987, after living and working in Germany for 10 years, she moved back with her family to Chennai, India. In 1994, she started Tara Books, an independent publishing house. Interested in both the word and the visual, Gita has always been keen to explore their relationship in creative and unorthodox ways. While she started out with the idea of creating picture books for children, set in the Indian context, the publishing house has gone on to do more: create illustrated books for children and adults, push the boundaries of the book form, publish titles in art pedagogy, and explore the relationship between the lived life and art and craft making. Experimenting with the production process is something that Gita has been interested in, from the beginning, and this has meant that making the book is seen not as a mechanical exercise, but as one that adds to the book’s content.

Over the past thirty years, she has been joined by writers, designers and other creative professionals who share her vision and have extended and deepened it. Tara Books is committed to bringing a variety of marginalised voices and perspectives to the reader, while continually playing with the form of the book. 
As a feminist, Gita believes in non-hierarchical models of functioning, based on dialogue and cooperation. Publishing decisions have evolved collectively with editorial, the design team and production and finance departments actively involved in deciding on the publishing list for the year.

Apart from being the chief publisher, Gita is also the author of several books. Beginning with The Very Hungry Lion in 1995, she has written over thirty books for children and adults. Several have won major international awards and been translated into multiple languages. One of her books—Do!—was honoured with the prestigious BolognaRagazzi New Horizons award in 2010.

Gita also travels extensively on behalf of Tara Books, giving talks and workshops in India and abroad. She was invited to be part of the jury for the Bologna Illustrators Exhibition and Catalogue 2013. Gita continues to explore publishing options. From the time she made the decision to feature Indian indigenous art in children’s books, to now, when she looks to work with different aspects of Indian artisanal traditions, including textile printing, she has worked at developing new ideas and directions. Invariably this has involved a measure of creative risk-taking, unforced and forced errors. In all this she has remained reflexive and open to learning. 

After graduating from Kuwasawa Design School, she worked as a men's designer at Onward Kashiyama Co. and joined One Stroke in 2013. While taking charge of overall management, also involved in design, illustration, and book production. Ai currently is the director of One Stroke and Gallery Komagata, promoting the work and legacy of his father Katsumi Komagata. She is in charge of basic design (fashion design) as a teacher at Kuwasawa Design School. Author of the books "Today is a Good Day" (2016), "Hands" (2020), "The Hands Touching the World" (2022). She has participated as well in the exhibition "Flower of Life," commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum in 2022. Judge of Kuwasawa Design School Festival “Fashion Show 2022”.

A librarian for public reading and the National Children´s Book Centre, she spent time in the United States where she worked in special effects at the Boston Opera. There she became acquainted with the world of artists´ books. Upon her return to France, Elisabeth Lortic founded the association Trois Ourses with
two fellow librarians: Odile Belkeddar and Annie Mirabel. For 30 years, their association, which they called Les Trois Ourses (The Three Bears) created a dialogue between art, books and children through their actions in libraries, schools and kindergartens.

Their adventure began with the desire to showcase the process of creating artistic books, whether by emerging artists or forgotten works from the previous century.

Their logo was designed by Paul Cox, and their catalogue filled with authors and artists such as Ianna Andreadis, Marion Bataille, Jill Hartley, Remy Charlip, Enzo Mari, Bruno Munari, Katsumi Komagata and many more. In 2018 Les Trois Ourses will end its existence, but Elisabeth is still active, as she is currently one of the most important personalities in the mediation of art and artist's books worldwide.