A suite of ten etchings was the basis for an artist’s book created during the COVID-19 pandemic—a time during which a more autobiographical approach began to appear in Al Kadiri’s work. About the book, Venetia Porter wrote: Titled My Father’s Grave, the book begins with an old family photograph taken in about 1932, that Abed Al Kadiri found by chance among his late father’s possessions. It shows his father—a boy of two or three—with his siblings and grandmother. Portrayed in different ways across the fold-out pages of the book, in one drawing the small child is now the artist himself, facing his father on his deathbed. The broken-up Arabic text is composed of the words: “One day I will visit my father’s grave. It will be like it used to be when he was alive. We won’t exchange a single word.”

In “My father’s Grave” Al Kadiri explores through an autobiographical artist’s book conceived during the first month of the pandemic his family history. Shedding the light on his controversial relationship with his father (1929- 2009 ), The book is visually developed based on an archival photograph of his father and his siblings taken aroud 1934 in Beirut. The broken up Arabic text contains the words: “One day I will visit my father’s grave. It will be like it used to be in the past when he was alive. We won’t exchange a single word.”