For each edition of the RISE Bookselling conference, we partner with a local illustrator from the host country to create the official conference artwork. With just one month to go, we’re excited to unveil this year’s illustration and introduce the artist behind it.

This year, we had the pleasure of collaborating with Marco Quadri.

For the illustration created for our Verona conference, he wanted to experiment with different sizes and create simple, recognisable imagery. He also reflected on his previous work with books, particularly the idea of the book as a form of home. Marco has always enjoyed drawing architecture and furniture, often imagining them populated by objects that coexist with books: objects that, in their own way, tell stories just as books do. The central character, a mouse, is inspired by the Italian expression “topo da biblioteca”, which translates literally as “library mouse,” similar to the English “bookworm.” 

The color palette is soft and carefully developed through hand-made trials. Marco notes that creating a single image, such as a poster, can be more challenging than working on a full illustrated book: it requires condensing a mood or idea into one composition. Ultimately, what matters most is that the image is immediately understandable, and that it conveys something meaningful to the viewer.

Marco is originally from Bologna. He studied etching at the University of Urbino, where he explored printing techniques such as woodcut, developing a strong background in carving and artistic printmaking. His interest then shifted toward the world of books and publishing, leading him to specialize at ISIA (Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche), a public art school directed by Silvana Sola, a leading theorist in the history of illustration and also owner of the Giannino Stoppani Library in Piazza Maggiore (Bologna). Over the years, he has lived in Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, and the United States. 

After graduating in 2020, he began working on commissions, including comic books and self-published projects. When he returned to Italy in 2022, he co-founded a cultural association with fellow artists, establishing a space in the center of Bologna called Titivil. The idea was to create not only a place to work, but also a physical meeting point, something increasingly needed in his community. The space also functions as an exhibition venue, with a street-facing window that allows passersby to engage with the work on display. It hosts exhibitions, book presentations, and other events. The association collaborates closely with another cultural association, Hamelin, particularly on the comic festival  A occhi aperti, and with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, contributing to city-wide exhibitions such as Woom. The fair also selects 77 illustrators to showcase their work publicly, Marco was selected in 2016 and again in 2025, participating with a book project for which he submitted his original plates. 

In terms of his artistic approach, Marco has always been deeply interested in independent publishing. In the years following university, he built a network through European cultural fairs and became involved in the world of risograph printing, a technique between industrial and artisanal processes, allowing for affordable book production. He is part of a collective called Enter Press, with whom he has published several projects driven by a shared passion for this technique. He began working on comics through open calls, steadily developing a style, citing as his references Anna Haifisch, Olivier Schrauwen, and Christofer Forbes, a musician and comic artist he particularly admires for his style that can shift dramatically from minimal, simple compositions to highly detailed and complex imagery, with narratives often carrying a sense of mystery. 

Although much of his work is rooted in self-publishing, Marco and his collective maintain strong connections with independent bookstores, especially those located near their exhibition space in Bologna, a city known for its particularly vibrant book and publishing scene. 

He has also worked on commissioned book projects, publishing comic books with the Italian publisher Edizioni BD and illustrated works with the Spanish publisher Zahori Books. One of his recent books explores the possibility of extraterrestrial life, imagining what life on other planets might look like, and raising broader questions about the origins of life in the universe.