These clay reliefs were originally part of set of approximately twenty-five autobiographical works that express personal loss and trauma. As a group, they were first shown in 1981 and 1982 in Philadelphia.
Mednick is a survivor of the Holocaust in Belgium. In Lili, he unites memories of the murder of his nine-year-old cousin, Lili, in 1942 at the hands of Nazi soldiers. In the background are the arching shapes of the concentration camp's ovens in which other members of Mednick's family perished. In Andy and Anita, Moss, Mednick portrays himself and his wife, Anita, with the artist's stepson, Andy, on a rotating gurney; Andy was injured in a car accident and treated at Moss Rehabilitation Hospital in Elkins Park. The injuries left him in a coma for five years, during which time he was cared for by his parents. In Andy and Anita, Armand, Anita, and Andy are portrayed in the context of Anita's battle with cancer. After a mastectomy and other debilitating procedures that began in 1970, Anita died of her illness.
