It turns out this is due to some weird interaction with the alacritty snap (https://snapcraft.io/alacritty). evince wasn't the only software to do this. Other GUI apps such as nautilus and eog when started from the terminal did the same thing.
Closing this. ** Changed in: evince (Ubuntu) Status: New => Invalid -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1942308 Title: IOT instruction (core dumped) when starting To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/evince/+bug/1942308/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs