Poems in Prints is the title of a multi-year project (2022–2025) that explores the connections between poetry and visual art through the medium of printmaking. The project takes place once a year and includes a printmaking workshop and an exhibition of the resulting works. Thematically, it focuses on the poems by well-known regional poets. These are Dragotin Kette, Srečko Kosovel, Maksa Samsa and Miroslav Vilhar. In co-operation with appropriate institutions as project partners, the participating artists get to know the selected poets and their poetry, and create a new graphic work with this connection in mind. They approach printmaking through experimentation, venturing beyond its basic parameters (print, reproduction), and consider positions of authorship by transforming the prints into originals in various ways. In doing so, they use typography as one of the key elements that provides a direct visual link to the poetry.

The third implementation of the project focuses on the poetry of Maksa Samsa. In the introductory part, the participating artists visited the permanent exhibition about the poet and her work in the Maksa Samsa Library in Ilirska Bistrica. This was followed by the practical part of the workshop, where they made prints using the screenprinting technique. They chose a poem by Maksa Samsa as a starting point for their work and used it as inspiration for conceiving their prints in two pre-determined colours. The prints were then produced and one-third of the printed copies were transformed into originals with intervention into the (textile) collage with patterns. Throughout the process, typography was used as a pictorial element, representing a direct visual link to the poetry. All the resulting works are presented in the exhibition.

The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the Municipality of Pivka and the Maksa Samsa Library Ilirska Bistrica.