Theatre of the Everyday is an artist’s book of photographs by Marianne Bernstein spanning 40 years exploring the poetics of everyday life. Divided into three main chapters: “Ensemble”, “Trouble in Paradise”, and “Denouement”, each chapter also has a sub-chapter: “Notes”, “Intermission”, and “Finale”. “Ensemble” begins with portraits. “Trouble in Paradise” widens our view into Bernstein’s travels and projects and “Denouement” expands her explorations into open spaces. The book reflects upon the significance and interconnection of all things, and the passing of time.

The book was designed by Domenico Liberti and Cristiano Bottino of Studio FM Milano, a Milan-based graphic design studio with a recognized international reputation.

Gregory Volk, a well-known New York-based art writer and curator, who has written regularly for Hyperallergic and Art in America wrote the Introduction and calls the book “remarkable”. Additional text includes essays by Kelsey Halliday Johnson, Executive Director of SPACE gallery in Portland, Maine; and Stan Mir, a writer in Philadelphia, PA whose art and poetry reviews have appeared in Hyperallergic, photography, and Jacket2. The final essay was written by Raimondo Cortese, Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Faculty Member of Fine Arts and Music at the Victorian College for the Arts, University of Melbourne.

“Each morning, our eyes, like curtains, open to an endless stream of people, objects, animals, and landscapes. How can we try to make sense of the fleeting worlds of perception and experience? Holding up a mirror, we discover we are all reflections of each other. A camera is a dynamic portal for heightened engagement with the world. Theatre of the Everyday is a call to imbue photography with its real power; careful observation, crossing boundaries, attention to elusive matters of perception, memory, and the wavering borderline between art and life”. -Marianne Bernstein, 2024

Silkscreened cover. hand-bound.