A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel

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Be that as it may, and despite the exponential popularity of erasure techniques amongst contemporary experimental artists, A Humument remains the most important and successful avatar of overpainting erasurism to this day. By “ex-huming” the corpse of an obscure late 19th century novel A Humument constitutes a singular case of a rewriting whose reputation and achievements outdo those of its predecessor. KR: What do you think sets your work apart from other artists, besides the fact that some of it — like A Humument — is unconventional in form? Do you see your work as categorically separate from, or fused to, the work of your contemporaries in any way? How much of this influence, positive or negative, is palpable? American premiere of Irma, produced by NCSU Centre Stage at Stewart Theatre of the University of North Carolina in Raleigh with Tom Phillips playing the part of The Narrator. The Australian National Gallery, Canberra acquires an archive of Tom Phillips graphic works including a large holding of Humument prints Phillips’s own career, meanwhile, had branched out into yet other forms of art-making. In the late 70s, he had begun work on a new translation of Dante’s Inferno, illustrated with his own prints: this was published in 1983. Six years later came A TV Dante, which he co-directed with the avant-garde film maker Peter Greenaway.

Treatment and Transformation: Tom Phillips's A Humument. Thesis by Elizabeth Elsas. Pub. Harvard University A Humument is referenced in Imaged Words and Worded Images, edited and with an introduction by Richard Kostelanetz (pub. Outerbridge & Dienstfrey) A Book of the Book, some works and projections about the book and writing, ed Steven Clay & Jerome Rothenberg pub. Granary Books A Humument p.361 Doing Italy, A Humument p.349 We Start Tomorrow and A Humument p.117 A Number Were Gay limited edition screenprints are exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

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A treated text by Tom Phillips is used on the cover of Heather McHugh's essay collection Broken English: Poetry and Partiality Within a week of completion, the first version of A Humument is shown in its entirety at the ICA, Humument works are exhibited also at Galerie Ba Ma, Paris The Atlantic, Volume 266 No.4 Oct. Pamela Petro's essay "Books as Works of Art" describes " A Humument" by Tom Phillips as "perhaps the most famous artist's book to date" ICA London Artist's Book Fair, features A Humument exhibition and a live event Tom Phillips and Hansjörg Mayer in conversation in which the artist and his publisher discuss their long and productive history Book Works touring exhibition continues to Gardner Centre for the Arts, University of Sussex, New Metropole Arts Centre, Folkestone, and other venues

A Humument features in Ginger Snaps: a collection of cut-ups / machine prose / word & image trips, Kontexts Publications Humument fragments are incorporated into illustrations for an elegant new edition of Cicero: Orations pub. The Folio Society A Humument features in an exhibition of works from the Centre for Book Arts at New York Public Library Elected to the Royal Academy in 1984, Phillips went on to chair the Academy's Library and its Exhibition Committee from 1995 to 2007. He also served as a trustee for the National Portrait Gallery and British Museum. Phillips was made a Commander of the British Empire for services to the Arts in the 2002 Birthday Honours list. In 2005, he was appointed Slade Professor of Fine Art, at the University of Oxford, and between 2005 and 2011 he was invited as an annual Director's Visitor to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. For nearly twenty years, I have collected the artistic, literary, and musical works of Tom Phillips, whom I have known as a friend and as his patron. To express succinctly my appreciation and description of his work, I utilise the word "Humumentism," one that I coined from Phillips's seminal, visual-poetic artist's book, A Humument. Although it might appear brash to ascribe an art form to an individual rather than a group of artists, I feel pressed to do so on several counts, not least because his multi-leveled creative accomplishments so discomfort the critical sector that interprets them. Phillips has always worked in parallel styles and themes, in sharp contrast to most successful artists, whose art is easily identified by a single style of the moment with changes, if ever, progressing serially over time. Human beings generally feel more at ease with an artist who has a single style and are put off by having to adjust to an artist whose style, thematic material, and medium all abruptly change.

The exhibition Blood on Paper: The Art of the Book, co-curated by Rowan Watson and Elena Foster, is on display at the V&A South Kensington from 15 April — 29 June This 50th anniversary edition presents, for the first time, an entirely new and complete version of 'A Humument'. It also brings this half-century-long endeavour to a close. New Humument fragment collage works are realised as limited edition prints. Loving You, Marriage Happens Together in the Train exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Remaining active across many fields right up to his death in November 2022, Phillips was also a judge for the Booker Prize in 2017, and an occasional broadcaster and public speaker of wit and vision throughout his final years. In the course of Phillips's teaching career, at Ipswich, Bath and Wolverhampton art schools, he introduced Brian Eno, his best student, to the ideas that helped Eno develop ambient and generative music.