Eve Sussman

Brooklyn-based Eve Sussman founded the Rufus Corporation, an ad hoc group of artists, dancers, actors and musicians who create videos, photographs and live events, in 2003. This volume compiles film stills from two works for which Sussman and her collaborators are most known. "89 Seconds at Alcázar" (2004) is a high-definition video tableau inspired by Diego Velázquez's painting "Las Meninas" (1656). The piece focuses on the 89 seconds when the Spanish royal family and their courtiers would have been in the exact configuration portrayed in the painting. The Rape of the Sabine Women--featuring a mesmerizing score composed by Jonathan Bepler--is an allegorical video that conflates the myth of Romulus' founding of Rome with David's painting "Intervention of the Sabine Women" (1796-99). It is set in an idealized, cinematic version of the 1960s that includes G-men and a decadent party in a chic International Style summer home.

This book documents a single, magnificent project by Eve Sussman and The Rufus Corporation: a tightly choreographed high-definition video inspired by Velasquez's seventeenth century masterpiece, Las Meninas. Includes video stills, photo documentation, notes and an essay by Sussman.