Born out of a reflection on the nature of images and their nocturnal vocation, Better in the Dark than His Rider is both a fable and a survival guide. The collected work by Francesco Merlini spans different years, possibly quite distant from one other; shot in all four continents, his pictures reveal the unique perspective of someone who, like a sleepwalker guided by ghosts, seeks for something nameless. The title is drawn, almost literally, from a 19th century manual of optics. The original sentence – “[…] much better in the dark than his rider” – refers to a horse’s night vision compared to a human’s.
The selected sequence of pictures unravels around the transitional stage between wakefulness and sleep, engaging with hypnagogia as a sensory yet dreamlike mode of semiconscious representation. Images make up mind’s psychic contents. If in dreams self-consciousness is suspended and images look real to the extent that we are sleeping, when dozing we can consciously guide them because partially aware that we are dreaming. Stated otherwise, in lucid dreams we know we are faced with the contents of our imagination, whose edges appear hallucinatory. Dreaming is a perpetual state we do experience both asleep and awake. Thanks to imagination, the dream matter turns into the mind’s real object again.

23,5×31 cm
Hard cover with embossing
Offset UV
80 pages
Paper:
Munken Lynx Rough 150 g/m²
Fedrigoni Sirio Nero 140 g/m²
Wibalin Natural Petal

Débris N°2 - Théo Garnier Greuez
Après la révolution – numéro 1
Wayfaring - Patrick Messina, André S. Labarthe
Le blanc nez - Fouss Daniel
interférence - 2 - maycec
(page 1 et 17) - Lorraine Druon
Optical Sound 3
Économies silencieuses et audaces approximatives - Guy Chevalier [& coll.]
Inchiostri + Inchiostri Supplement - Ronan Bouroullec
Les soleils qui tournent ont des oreilles - coll.
Saint Julien l'hospitalier Tome 3 - Claire Pedot
Jean-Jacques a dit - Angèle Douche
Acteurs d'un film gravé. Docteur A. Infirmier O. - Annabelle Dupret, Olivier Deprez et Adolpho Avril
Holy etc. - Fabienne Radi
Eldorado maximum - Les commissaires anonymes
Feminist Art Activisms and Artivisms - Katy Deepwell (ed.)
Pas vu Pas pris - Collectif, Olivier Deloignon, Guillaume Dégé
Inframince et hyperlié - Philippe Lipcare
Roven n°5
La typographie des Penguin Classics - Andrew Barker
Dark optics - David Claerbout
Notre condition. Essai sur le salaire au travail artistique – Aurélien Catin
Entretiens – Jérôme Dupeyrat
Temps d'arrêt - Etienne Buyse
Der Erste Rotkehlchen - Le livre
Anderlecht — Molenbeek - Pierre Blondel
Mökki n°4
MENU メニュー - Wataru Tominaga
Ventoline 5 - Coll.
Roven n°4
Tanière de lune - Maria-Mercé Marçal
Fluent - Laëticia Donval
Pectus Excavatum - Quentin Yvelin
Véhicule N°7 - Collectif
Titanic Orchestra - Julien Mauve
Artzines # 10 - Show & Tell #2 NY Special
Shanghai Cosmetic - Leslie Moquin
Les voiles de Sainte-Marthe - Christian Rosset
De lave et de fer - Laurent Feynerou
À partir de n°1 - Coll.
Karbone Magazine n°8 - Parasite
Illusive prosody - Alex Beaurain 































