This volume is the culmination of live readings by some of the best-known actors of our time (James Cosmo, Marton Csokas, Robert Davi, Abel Ferrara, Stephen Fry, Alessandro Haber, Joe Mantegna, Malcolm McDowell, Jamie McShane, Franco Nero, Vincent Piazza, Michele Placido, and Kevin Spacey), all performed before important works of ancient art.

Ruins includes essays by the eminent scholars of ancient art Seán Hemingway (Metropolitan Museum), Kenneth Lapatin (Getty Museum), Christian Gliwitzky (Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek), Andrew Stewart (UC Berkeley), Lynda Nead (Birkbeck, University of London), and Nigel Spivey (University of Cambridge).