This a book out of the ordinary. On 80 pages, the author gives an unsparing and heartbreaking account of his illness of terminal cancer, his fading strength over time, and, eventually, his willingness to accept the fact that he will soon die.

Wolfgang Bergmann was a psychologist and family scientist who died in May of 2011 at the age of 67 after a year-long battle with bone cancer. In his lifetime, he headed the Institute for Child Psychology and Learning Therapy in Hanover, and he also authored nonfiction books with much success.

Shortly before his death, the author asked the publisher to find an artist who could come up with Japanese-style images to be used inside the book, or log rather.

This called for non-figurative drawings, brushed with Indian ink. This was the first time that I created abstract illustrations for a book, and also one of the rare occasions where I would actually work with real ink and paper, as opposed to the digital world that I usually work in these days.

Needless to say, I was a little reluctant, and also intimidated by the emotional topic that was offered to my by the publisher shortly after Wolfgang Bergmann passed away. I ended up creating a variety of thick brush stroke images that were scattered in the book where deemed suitable.

For the jacket cover of the small book published by Kösel (Random House), I chose a dark linen coating, and a small sheet of paper attached to the linen that contained the title. >MORE