Merzmensch - Flying Booksellers 02

From the series: NeoreAIlism
Paper: Hahnemühle Fine Art Archival Print
Sheet size: 40 × 40 cm with 1 cm white border around the motif.
Year: Edition of 2025
Edition: 3 + 1 AP
Signed, dated and edition numbered by the artist on a separate label.

Merzmensch – Flying Booksellers 02

A man stands in the middle of the street, laden with books as if he were carrying wings. His balance seems impossible, his gaze slightly overwhelmed. And yet he remains standing, dignified and stoic—as if carrying knowledge were an ancient calling.

Flying Booksellers 02 is another chapter in Merzmensch's poetic chronicle of a profession that never existed—but should have. Here, the "flying bookseller" is no longer a salesperson, but a bearer of collective memory. His books are neither organized nor labeled—they are charged, heavy, absurdly present.

And yet, the scene has a documentary feel. The streetscapes, the clothing, the gestures of the passersby—everything is reminiscent of a black-and-white photograph from 1950s Italy. Yet, of course, nothing about it is "real." Like all works in the NeoreAIlism series, this image is based on a fictional reconstruction of the past using AI—and the perspective of an artist who knows that memory is always a construction.

What's really flying here isn't the bookseller. It's the imagination.