Sweet Sweat, the only novel by Belgian artist Justine Frank, is unusual, to say the least―a blend of feminism, pornography, Judaism, and art, written in French in 1931. Its heroine is a Jewish girl named Rachel, born in the South of France, who has an outstanding talent for debauchery and crime. She takes up with the sybaritic Count Urdukas and sets out with him on an odyssey of pleasure and corruption marked by bizarre events in which horror and humor mingle. This comprehensive new edition of Frank's novel includes an essay and an extensive biography by Israeli American writer and artist Roee Rosen and a timeline tracing key moments in Frank's life, providing a definitive analysis of this once-scandalous novel and its historical and cultural contexts.
[As he hovered] over the skinny body, his nostrils were filled with the aroma of horror-sweat that poured from Rachel. He was swept by the scent. His breathing became a guttural purr and his eyes glazed over. Oh, shrewd liqueur of tropical fruits! Ah, venomous crème de cassis! Hurrah, distilled, tyrannical sweetness, tainted neither by a salty tint nor sour hint! Never had the Count been caught by such a fire as was ignited by this sweetness... a carnivorous perfume, as seismic as epilepsy... A smut potion worthy of the sacred nostrils of the Pope! ―Justine Frank, Sweet Sweat, 1931
Roee Rosen's paintings, films, and writings have become known for their historical and theological consciousness, novelistic imagination, and psychological ambition. His work addresses the representation of history, the political economy of memory, and the politics of identity, often exploring the tension between trauma, horror, humor, and truth. Rosen was born in Rehovot, Israel, in 1963, and received degrees in visual art from the School of Visual Arts and Hunter College, both in New York. He now lives in Israel, where he teaches art and art history at Bezalel Academy of Art and at Beit Berl College. In 1997 Rosen's controversial exhibition “Live and Die as Eva Braun” at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, was aggressively attacked by Israeli politicians. It won critical praise, however, for its new approach to the representation of the memory of the Holocaust. Rosen's projects include the exhibition “Justine Frank (1900–1943): A Retrospective” (2009) and the films Two Women and a Man (2005) and The Confessions of Roee Rosen (2008). He has authored the books A Different Face (Shva, 2000), Lucy (Shadurian, 2000), Sweet Sweat (Babel, 2001), and Ziona™ (Keter, 2007).
Copublished with Extra City

Sweet Sweat (Sternberg Press)

Literature & Fiction

Frank, Justine

Rosen, Roee

Literary

Sternberg Press

Internationally recognized Israeli-American writer, filmmaker and artist Roee Rosen (b. 1963) juxtaposes text and image, history and its revision in the publication of her artist book The Blind Merchant (1989-91). Produced at a moment when the idea of originality was being questioned, this compelling artist book shows that classic stories are open for new angles of approach that reflect the time of their reading. Composed of three elements: the complete text of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice; a 'parasitical' text by Rosen from the perspective of Shylock running alongside the play; and 145 pen-and-ink drawings presenting Rosen s approach to the drama s staging and casting of characters. The artist uses the blind drawing technique to depict Shylock, the blinded merchant in this dramatic retelling of the Shakespearian tragedy. Blind Merchant accompanies a solo exhibition at Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2016) plus a foreword by Joshua Simon. Past Sternberg publications include the cult classic Justin Frank: Sweet Sweat (2009) and Maxim Komar-Myshkin: Vladimir's Night (2014).

The Blind Merchant (Sternberg Press)

Arts & Photography

Individual Artists

The pilot episode of a TV series that perversely aims to make Kafka's tales palpable for toddlers. Roee Rosen's film Kafka for Kids is set as the pilot episode for a TV series that perversely aims to make Kafka's tale "The Metamorphosis" palpable for toddlers. In its title, the film Kafka for Kids implies that the intellectual great of modern literature will finally be presented in a way that is generally understandable. Roee Rosen wants to present Franz Kafka, of all people, with his contorted thought constructions, in a way that is even accessible to kids! But unfortunately, that's not how things turn out: the star writer of the educated middle class is not simplified, but his story becomes much more complex, corresponding to reality, for reality is more complicated than we like to represent using biaxial graphs.&nbsp; Featuring the original script of the movie, readers are invited to dive into a magical story, followed by essays that give a deeper insight in the literary aspects of Roee Rosen's oeuvre. A stowaway on the journey, Rosen playfully and with wonderful self-irony does not negate the complexity of the present, but takes it to the next level by exploring how all things are interlinked. Rosen neither doubts the complexity of our reality, nor does he oversimplify to a fault. Published by Sternberg Press and Kunstmuseum Luzern.

Kafka for Kids

History & Criticism

Live and die as Eva Braun: Hitler's mistress, in the Berlin bunker and beyond : an illustrated proposal for a virtual-reality scenario

The Israel Museum

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Books by Rosen, Roee