Rosen is an artist whose focus is on the use and interpretation of language. In Palimpsest, John X and Benedict X began a list of names, united by a terminating columns of X’s. The list included not only popes but kings and concluded with Malcolm X. The reader is caught short by the change from the use of “X” as a statement of lineage and imposed status, to that used by Malcolm X, for whom “X” represented a lack of known heritage.