From his early assemblages and sculptures first shown at Ferus gallery in the 1950s in Los Angeles, to his work in the Bay Area (where he founded Semina Gallery), Berman was a central figure in the jazz, Beat, and art communities of mid-century California. In 1964, Berman began to make Verifax collages, embarking on a path that he would follow for over a decade, until his death in Topanga Canyon in 1976.

The Verifax is an early image multiplier, and Berman’s pieces consider how imagery and variation create symbolic languages. He presents arrangements that we anticipate “should” be meaningful, but without a key to decipher them. The works tease us with information and invite us to interpret their meaning.