In medical terminology, ‘parasomnia’ denotes various sleep dysfunctions, such as somnambulism. Viviane Sassen’s photographs evoke the sense of displacement and ambiguity often experienced in the state between waking and sleep. In her carefully staged scenes nothing is what is seems: references and conventions are subverted by means of shadows and materials.

The series comprises photographs taken in West and East Africa over the past two years, as well as a few taken in Europe.

Prefaced by a short story written by Moses Isegawa, the pages of the book lead the eye through a series of illusions on the verge of realism. Parasomnia follows Sassen’s highly acclaimed monograph Flamboya (2008), and is equally innovatively designed.