An interesting obstacle to face when adapting a work of literature for visual art is that certain details are left out. This is where the artist can intervene and create their own variations on the original without veering too far off.
The closing image of this series attempts to fill-in-the-blanks on the final and most intriguing scene of “Berenice.” One moment she is “dead” and the next she is found alive yet disfigured at her disturbed burial site. Being buried alive…a “corpse” exhumed by a madman…disturbing a grave and finding the body still breathes…ripping teeth out of the mouth of a screaming woman with a set of crude dental tools…
What did this scene look like? How would Egaeus have left Berenice’s now nearly dead body?
The only thing I would do differently in the future is play up the “disfigured” nature of Berenice’s injuries. I have already been looking up how to use Spirit Gum and other costume make-up to create a Glasgow grin. Who knows, but the madman probably wanted easy access to those “thirty-two small, white and ivory-looking substances.”
