Michal Rovner Walks into the Nursery

Reading Hug by David Grossman and Michal Rovner as an Artwork

Abstract

In 2011, Israeli author David Grossman and Israeli-born artist Michal Rovner published Hug, their first joint children’s book, with Grossman’s text and Rovner’s artwork (the term used in the book for what would otherwise be described as illustrations in the context of children’s literature); Rovner was also responsible for the book’s design. While most critics of Hug comment on Rovner’s artwork, they are nonetheless informed by the outlook and context of children’s literature, the discipline from which they come. The present essay, however, offers a novel reading of Hug not only as a children’s book, but also as an artwork, a unified composite where text and image are imbricated and intertwined to create what W.J.T. Mitchell calls imagetext. The article considers the unique nature of Rovner’s art and reads Hug within the broader context of her artistic worldview and works, thereby challenging the book’s traditional interpretation as well as its classification as children’s literature.