OPEN SCHOOL – Nina Paim: Books, Bridges, and Bonds

Artwork by Vid Godec & Hai Fang Hu

An ongoing thread in Nina Paim’s practice is publishing as a way of creating community—gathering people, sharing knowledge, and building bridges across disciplines and contexts. In this lecture, Paim will reflect on her path from design into publishing and introduce some of the upcoming titles from her press, Bikini Books, scheduled for release in 2026.

Nina Paim is a Brazilian designer, curator, editor, and publisher based in Porto, Portugal. She has co-curated numerous exhibitions, workshops, and events, including Escola Aberta (Rio de Janeiro, 2012), Swiss Design Network Conference: Beyond Change (Basel, 2018), Department of Non-Binaries (Sharjah, 2018), Feminist Findings (Berlin, 2020), Etceteras: Feminist Festival of Publishing and Design (Porto, 2023), and most recently Comunoteca, part of the public program of the 4th Porto Design Biennale (Porto, 2025).

She has co-edited Taking a Line for a Walk (Spector Books, 2016) and Design Struggles (Valiz, 2021). A three-time recipient of the Swiss Design Awards, Nina has taught and lectured internationally, and her writing has appeared in Occasional Papers (UK/BE), Les Presses du Réel (FR), esad-idea (PT), AV Editions (DE), and the Korea Society of Typography (KR).

In 2019, she co-founded the feminist platform FUTURESS.org, which she co-directed until 2023. That same year, she launched Bikini Books, an independent feminist publisher for design. In 2024, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of the Arts London (UAL).