This painting is the modern, giant mouse version of The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli, with some key differences.

The most important of these differences is that the sleeper here is a man, not a woman, which eliminates the whole rape-y, molest-y, pervy thing. Men have it so easy…

Also, he incubus in this painting is just a really, really, really big mouse, which is pretty cute if you can get over the whole it’s probably suffocating the man under it thing. Unless he is already dead. There’s really no way of knowing since the man’s completely white. And not like deathly white, like actually white. Either way he looks peaceful so it’s probably not the mouse’s fault if he is, in fact, dead.

As you can see with this sculpture, Fritsch is concerned with things that, if you think about them long enough, drive you crazy in a psychological torture kind of way. She explains, “[I have] a strong affinity with the magic quality of surrealism. But I find it too psychological, it doesn’t really account for this sort of astonishment I’m interested in…I am concerned with the point where you start to wonder about the existence of things.” At this point you’re probably wondering if giant mice sit on your chest while you’re sleeping, but that’s all part of Fritsch’s game. She wants you to second guess yourself until you go crazy and set up cameras in your bedroom only to see nothing but brainstorm conspiracy theories anyway. Fritsch is a creepy lady but you have to admit, she had a way with polyester resin and paint.