Marianne Bernstein, Dark Side of the Moon, 1/300, 2026, Paperback glue bound sewn bound, Offset printed, 9.5 × 7.3 inches

Marianne Bernstein is an artist and independent curator. Dark Side of the Moon, published in 2026, is her third book of photographs, following Theatre of the Everyday (2024), an artist's book spanning 40 years that explores the poetics of everyday life, and Tatted (2009), an exploration of South Street, Philadelphia’s tattoo community.

Her photographs have been exhibited both nationally and internationally.

Dark Side of the Moon is a poetic journey exploring connections between inner and outer worlds, reason and emotion, the known and the unknown. Scientifically, the dark, or far, side of the moon is the view we cannot see from Earth. In my recent book of photographs, astronomical images from the far side of the Moon are interwoven with dream self-portraits, and medical imaging of my interior body.

Under the microscope, the body becomes a galaxy. Scientific evidence suggests that the building blocks of life originated in outer space: all four components of DNA and RNA, which encode our genes, have been found in meteorites. These molecules carry the blueprint of who we are. Facts and reason, science and intuition, mystery and emotion revolve around an interconnected axis of knowing. This work calls for deeper connections to other realities and to ourselves.

Across all of my work—photographs, projects, exhibitions, books, and temporary architectures—I return to the same questions: How do we shape, moment to moment, our understanding of the world? What falls away when we cross borders—geographic, cultural, psychological—and remain long enough to be changed? My work does not seek conclusions. It creates conditions for attention, where the everyday becomes strange, the unknown is held rather than explained, and new ways of seeing can quietly emerge. -M.B