EveNSteve artists are extremely pleased to announce that their artwork entitled Each One a Soul has been acquired by the Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vermont. Part of an ongoing series entitled “The Battlefield,” Each One a Soul is a multi-panel photograph with hand-sewing and handwritten text that depicts scenes from the site of the Battle of Bennington and imagines a series of voices speaking about the battle from various points of view: from a combatant stealing a pocket watch, to a brass cannon that was named Molly Stark, to the earth of the field itself.

“(Each One a Soul) bring(s) a nearly 250 year old event, which was the impetus for the Museum’s founding, into the present day,” says Jamie Franklin, Director of Exhibitions and Collections. “We ⎼ as a Society, Country, and Community ⎼ continue to grapple with some of the same issues that concerned the soldiers who fought and lost their lives to guarantee us all ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ nearly 250 years ago. As we approach the 250th anniversaries of America’s founding, the Revolutionary War, and the Battle of Bennington in the coming years, this work will help Bennington Museum bring history to life and make it relevant for contemporary audiences.”

EveNSteve is the husband and wife team of author Eve O. Schaub and artist Stephen Schaub who are based in Pawlet, Vermont. As a Marine Gulf War Veteran, and recipient of the Navy Achievement Medal, Stephen Schaub brings to “The Battlefield” series a particular lived experience. 2021 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the First Gulf War. This milestone represents a pivotal moment in Schaub’s desire to grapple with the meaning of his own experience of both honor and trauma, through the frame of history and art.

The Battle of Bennington took place on August 16, 1777, and was a small but significant Revolutionary War skirmish on the border of New York and Vermont.

Battlefield sites are preserved to connect us with the past. “The Battlefield” series invites viewers to ask: what has been learned? Does the land carry the memory of a battle the way a body carries trauma? Can it be used to heal? Using imagery of the site and text based on the battle’s history, filmmaker-artists EveNSteve invite the viewer to investigate and reimagine the battlefield as a place of ritual, healing and rebirth.

“The importance of studying history is recognizing the way that past decisions and actions affect us in the present,” says Bennington Museum Collections Manager Callie Raspuzzi. “This work asks important questions in a compelling and visually beautiful way.”

A short film is available on EveNSteve’s website that features Eve reading the text of the artwork while panning over the imagery, as well as images documenting the making of the artwork. For this and more information, please visit: EveNSteve.com