Launched in August 2012 and still going strong, the “Hysterical Literature Project” is a video art series by New York photographer/filmmaker Clayton Cubitt. It explores feminism, mind/body dualism and the contrast between culture and sexuality by asking women to read in a state of orgasm.

The concept is simple. Women are seated with a book at a table, filmed in austere black and white against a black background. They have chosen what to read and how to dress. They begin reading while they are stimulated by unseen assistants with a vibrator under the table. The challenge is to read while in orgasm.

“The series examines the battle between the mind and the body,” says Cubitt. “It also explores the cultural contrast between art and sex, particularly how people react to the mixture of the two, and battle over female sexuality and society’s concepts of shame.”

Here is Amanda reading William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”

Hysterical Literature: Sandy Relief from Clayton Cubitt on Vimeo.

Session One: Stoya reds Supervert’s “Necrophilia Variations”

Session Two: Alicia reads Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”

Session Three: Danielle reads Tom Robbins “Still Life With Woodpecker”

Session Four: Stormy reads “American Psycho” by Bret Easton Ellis

Session Five: Teresa reads Jeanette Winterson’s “Sexing on a Cherry”

Session Six: Sole reads Toni Morrison’s “Beloved”

Session Seven: Amanda reads “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess

Session Eight: Margaret reads A. N. Roquelaure’s “Sleeping Beauty”

Session Nine: Marne reads John Ashbery’s “Self-Portrait on a Convex Mirror”

Session Ten: Janet reads Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Friendship and Character”