Artist’s book’s: 

Grandpa Richard’s Ghost,

&

Carbide Ash

Kim Berman

Information about Grandpa Richard's Ghost (2025), a book featuring digital prints of photographs embedded in milkweed, sisal, and Ghana-kozo long fiber paper with ash.
A weathered, torn piece of paper with handwritten text that reads: 'G2: G1: JHEARD'S GHOST: A work of collected and embedded fragments.'
A weathered, torn piece of oldpaper with faint, partially visible text and a rough, fibrous texture.
A worn, tattered, and partially torn old book or manuscript with faded text on the left page and a faded portrait or drawing of a person on the right page.
A worn, damaged book with torn pages and faded images, featuring old photographs and text, visible dirt, debris, and signs of decay.
A very old, fragile, and torn book with pages that are damaged and overlaid with cobwebs, making the text difficult to read.
Old, tattered, and faded election flyer with two black-and-white photographs, torn and worn paper edges, and details about a 1949 voting event in Johannesburg.
A worn, tattered open book with damaged pages, darkened by dirt and debris, with visible texts and images, including a hand reaching towards the left page.
An old, worn notebook with dirty, dust-covered pages containing faded and torn text, with some parts missing or obscured.
Old, tattered scrapbook or journal page with a faded black-and-white photo of a woman on the left page and illegible handwritten text on the right page.
Close-up of an old, dusty stone inscription with faint, worn engraved text, surrounded by spider webs and debris.
An old, worn notebook with torn pages and embedded photographs, one on each page, showing damaged objects surrounded by spider webs and debris.
A textured open handmade book with embedded photographs and handwritten text on the right page, featuring a portrait and a description, with a glass frame on the left page surrounding a circular artwork with paper and debris, against a plain white ba
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A personal essay: Grandpa Richard’s Ghost

A photograph of a torn and weathered paper with a faint portrait of a person on it, partially obscured by cracks and dirt.
A detailed pencil sketch of a woman with short hair, wearing a collared shirt. She looks directly at the viewer with a calm expression, and her hand rests near her neck.

Richard’s Ghost, book cover

Charcoal portrait of Richard 

(Image reference from my mother’s book:

Remembering Irma: Irma Stern a Memoir 

by Mona Berman 2003: p18, Double Story Publishers.)

The portrait of Richard Feldman by Irma Stern used to hang in my Granny’s study next to Richard’s desk. My mother, Mona, always hung this portrait next to her desk. It was passed onto me, and I placed it on the wall next to my desk. A powerful, gentle, charcoal sketch that seemed partially incomplete. It always reassured me.

 Grandpa Richard’s spirit is powerful. He inspired generations. He inspired me and my sisters to become social activists. He was a founding member of the Labour party and had a powerful oppositional voice to the Apartheid government in the 1950s. He was elected as a member of Parliament (with Helen Suzman) and campaigned vigorously against the oppression and discrimination of the black majority.  He embraced and promoted the Yiddish language as one that held the soul of the Jewish people. He wrote stories and copious letters to the press, advocating for human rights and social justice.

A burned wall with soot marks, broken picture frames, and scattered debris and trash on the floor.

Burnt ghosts: Photograph of the remains of the burnt wall in my study, with traces of family ghosts.

A collection of old documents and newspapers including a black and white campaign flyer for Richard Feldman from 1949, featuring his photo and election details, along with a blue cover titled 'Carried Ash' by Richard Feldman and other papers and pencils surrounding them.

The fire in my study burnt the portrait of Richard … but left its trace, and what I saw as his ghost. I have attributed all the miracles of survivals, surprises, and serendipities in the fire, and in its aftermath to my grandfather’s ghost. I see this fire that burnt down my study not as loss, but a myriad of blessings.

Fragmented old photograph of a person with short hair, mounted on aged beige paper.

I have found and rediscovered old treasures, physical remains that have taken on a poignancy of meaning. In a box of my sister Hayley’s books, she pulled out a sleeve containing writings and clippings by Richard. 

What a gift to read his eulogy by Rabbi Super. I was 8 years old when he died. I found a story that he wrote for my sister Lori when she turned 4 years old. I remember sitting on his knee when he was confined to a wheelchair and being transported by his stories. 

I remember his passionate arguments with his brother Label, a communist and he a fervent socialist and labour rights advocate.  And then I found a translated story of the gold miners from his Yiddish book Black and White called “Carbide Ash”. The narrative holds the texture and empathy of my zama zama series of prints: “from the depths of the earth come men who are like extinguished lamps with dead ash …” (Richard Feldman, written in the 1930s and published in 1957, NY)

Making book pages

Dirty glass surface with dirt, leaves, and small debris scattered on it.
Two photographs of burned and damaged interiors, mounted on rough-edged paper, featuring soot-covered walls, charred furniture, and debris from fire.

This artist's book of embedded fragments of ghosts on the wall, documents, or other fragments from the fire, evokes the blessing of my grandparents, parents and family. These images were embedded onto a base of kozo overlayed with milkweed fibre during the paper making process for the pages of Richard’s Book.

Pulling treasures from rubble is an act of empathy in a world at war … evocations of bombed out remains for so many families, who have lost children and so much more than the treasured objects around us.