Private Papers

‘Private Papers’ is a new artist book by Nurit Gur Lavy Karni, which uses erasure and concealment to expose and reconsider a charged historical document - ten pages of her grandmother's personal diary. Written between 1926 and 1935, after Sarah Kafri emigrated from Russia to Israel, the text exposes a seemingly unbridgeable gap between the image of the stoic pioneer woman, and the figure that emerges from these pages—one marked by sorrow, loneliness, and heartbreak. 

Gur Lavy Karni scanned and printed the original pages, and gave them to her 97-year-old mother,  to erase the words of pain she feared would be exposed to foreign eyes. These censored pages, alongside a family photograph, were then re-scanned, transferred to photographic etching plates, and printed. 

The erasures and concealments expose the contrast between personal suffering and a national ethos that demanded lives of absolute conviction – sweeping ideals which are increasingly being called into question.  In the artist's own words, “Through a dialectic of revealing concealment and concealing revelation, I give voice to the hidden sorrow and answer my grandmother’s question: “Who will hear my voice?” I will—your granddaughter.”

Size: 26.7 x 21 cm., 128 Pages, Softcover with SilkScreen, Otabind. Paper: Imitlin Allpack Blu 210 gsm, Arena Natural Rough 90 gsm. English & Hebrew, ISBN 978-965-597-476-8, Printed and Bound at Die Keure, Design by Tali Liberman.