Twenty-nine Thousand Nights, A Communist Life : A Project by Ruth Ewan

Twenty-Nine Thousand Nights: A Communist Life is an unusual chronicle of the personal journey of young woman named nan Berger through her writings, investigations into government intelligence reports, and visual images. from a wealthy middle-class northern British family, Berger was drawn to the Communist Party in the 1930s. Shocked by the tactics of the police at an anti-fascist meeting, she became a lifelong campaigner for civil liberties. Through the Communist Party and the national Assembly of Women, nan Berger became an early critic of gender inequality, writing Woman Fancy or Free? with Joan Maizels.

This intriguing exploration of historical documents from one womans life conveys the many unexpected byways of left political commitment in the twentieth century, bringing to the surface a wider social history. Sheila Rowbotham. Bergers unpublished memoir was uncovered by Glasgow-based artist Ruth ewan, who edited and expanded upon the archival material. ewan is known for context-specific artworks created through found material and historical records, which is grounded in research on social and political histories.