Dorothy Lannone was a married woman. She separated from her husband one week after she met Dieter Roth.
Lannone lived with Roth in Düsseldorf, Reykjavik, Basel, and London until 1974. Roth became Iannone’s muse and features in much of her artwork. His nickname for her was “lioness.”
One of her most noted works involving Roth is her book An Icelandic Saga (1978–86), which vividly illustrates the artist’s first encounter with Roth and her subsequent breakup with her husband in the vein of a Norse myth. She also created paintings of her and Roth in a sexual union as a historical couple.
Lannone and Roth remained friends until his death in 1998.