DESSA is the pseudonym for artist and author Deborah Sharon Abeles, now called Deborah Petroz Abeles, who was born in 1948 in Southern Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe). She studied occupational therapy in Israel. Besides her work combining music and visual art; her research concerning artistic expression for collective memory reflects on her interest in Jewish history and her own loss of family in Auschwitz. She produced “A Legacy from Theresienstadt” in 1997 and “A Tribute to Kaufhaus N. Israel 1815–1939” in 2003.She has had international exhibitions in Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Poland, France and Italy. A Swiss citizen as of 1983, she lives in Pully, Switzerland with her husband Hervé Petroz, and in Berlin.
