Dessa is the pseudonym for artist and author Deborah Sharon Abeles, who was born in 1948 in Southern Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe). After high school, she lived in Israel from 1965 to 1976 where she studied Occupational Therapy. The following four years she spent in Paris, and in 1981, moved to Switzerland with her two children. Of a multi-cultural background, she became a Swiss citizen in 1983 and lives in Pully with her husband Hervé Petroz. Since 1986, over fourty exhibitions and presentations of her work have been held in museums, galleries and concert halls in Europe. Her first exhibition in Berlin, at Galerie Bremer, took place in 1994. Since 2005 she has a second studio and home in Berlin.