It is tempting, given the nature of A Humument, to read the textual elements of the work as so many unrelated oracular or aphoristic statements. To do so, however, is to deny the narrative qualities of the work and ignore the fact that a story is being told.
Categories: Art & Aesthetics, Literature, Print Culture, Writing
Tagged: A Human Document, A Humument, Bill Toge, Tom Phillips, W.H. Mallock
“Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote” is a (fictional) scholarly homage to a (equally fictional) early-20th century French neo-Symbolist poet whose crowning literary achievement was to write, some 300 years after the fact and for no apparent reason, Don Quixote.
Categories: Art & Aesthetics, Literature, Writing
Tagged: conceptual literature, J.L. Borges, Pierre Menard
A Humument features a number of framing devices that, in addition to whatever narrative role they may play, further emphasize the self-reflexive character of the book. Unsurprisingly perhaps given the nature of this work, among the most common are the (book) page, the painting, and the window.
Categories: Art & Aesthetics, Literature, Writing
Tagged: A Humument, framing devices, Tom Phillips, W.H. Mallock, windows
This gallery contains contains selected pages from A Humument by Tom Phillips.
Categories: Art & Aesthetics, Gallery, Literature, Writing
Tagged: A Humument, framing devices, Tom Phillips, W.H. Mallock, windows
Over the course of the opening pages A Humument is given many descriptive monikers, and each of them sheds a bit of light on the sundry qualities the book possesses, the method with which it was created, and its dual nature as both an intertextual and intermedia work.
Categories: Art & Aesthetics, Literature, Writing
Tagged: A Humument, intermedia, intertextuality, Tom Phillips
The Quays’ interest in writing has nothing to do with the shepherding of short stories and novels from the page to the screen; rather, it’s all about the obsessive visual exploration of writing as both an activity and an artifact that permeates their films.
Tagged: Brothers Quay, experimental film
This gallery contains a selection of stills from films by the Brothers Quay that reveal their obsession with writing.
Categories: Cinema, Gallery, Writing
Tagged: Brothers Quay, experimental film
The first page of Tom Phillips’ A Humument is emblematic of the entire work. Textually and graphically it touches on some of the book’s central concerns and provides clues to certain of its mysteries.
Categories: Art & Aesthetics, Literature, Writing
Tagged: A Humument, appropriation, intertextuality, Tom Phillips, W.H. Mallock