3432 Caniff St.
Hamtramck, MI, 48212
Hamtramck, MI, 48212
Better In The Dark Than His Rider
,
Second
Edition
Edition
of 1200
2025
Hardcover
Sewn
binding
80
Pages
10
"
x
12.5
"
$ 55
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New: New directly from publisher or artist.
As New: The book is in pristine, original condition as when published. This grade may apply to older books that have been carefully stored, never shelved, thumbed, or opened.
Fine: A Fine book is nearly As New in condition but without being crisp. The book may have been opened and read, but shows no defects to the book, jacket, or pages.
Near Fine: A book approaching Fine (or As New) but with a couple of very minor defects or faults, which must be noted by the seller
Very Good: A book showing small signs of wear but no tears on either binding or paper. The book maintains its structural integrity, and any defects must be noted by the seller.
Good: Describes a book with average wear while maintaining complete text pages. The book is intact and readable, but shows signs of use. Any defects must be noted by the seller.
Fair: A worn book that has complete text pages (including those with maps or plates) but may lack endpapers, half-title, etc. (which must be noted).The binding and jacket (if any) may show significant wear. All defects should be noted.
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.
“Better in the Dark than His Rider by Francesco Merlini is a creative meditation on the sense of sight drawn together from seemingly unrelated images from the artist’s extended archive. There is a visual sumptuousness to this publication which is enhanced by an approach to the sequencing and design, guided by a sensitive, original reading of colour. This is an expertly achieved photobook, conceptually and aesthetically.”
Anthony Luvera
