Less Is More: Editing the Human Document
Tom Phillips A Humument 2005 Detail
To those who love literature, there are thousands of books, classic and contemporary, that count as treasured works of art.
But for British artist Tom Phillips, it might seem there is only one: the Victorian novel “A Human Document” by W. H. Mallock. For over 40 years, Phillips has been reworking the pages of this book, removing some words, emphasizing others and adding imagery to create a wholly different reading experience.
Phillips’s process has resulted in a kind of cult bestseller of his own—A Humument, his treatment of the Mallock book, is now in its fourth edition, and is published by Thames and Hudson.
With its mix of medieval illumination and experimental poetry, erasure and creative production, Phillips’s work provided the key inspiration for “Less Is More: The Poetics of Erasure,” a group show currently on at the Simon Fraser University Art Gallery. Curated by gallery director Bill Jeffries and poet Ariana Kelly, the show includes all 390 pages of one version of A Humument, as well as works on erasure by 23 other artists and poets.
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Monica Aasprong Soldiers’ Market 2005–8 Detail |
Backgrounds among these artists range widely. Mary Ruefle is a Guggenheim fellowship recipient and poet who lives in Vermont. Vancouver by way of New York artist Kristina Lee Podesva recently graduated from UBC’s MFA program, where she specialized in creating alternative art schools. Michael Maranda is an artist and curator in Toronto who runs his own art press, Parasitic Ventures. And Jamie Hilder’s 2007 solo exhibition in Vancouver had him train to run a four-minute mile—a feat of jockdom far removed from the dusty library stacks.
The result is a typographic downsizing the likes of which promises to resonate both poetically and politically. (8888 University Dr, Burnaby BC)
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Mary Ruefle Friends in Fur and Feathers by Gwynfryn Detail |
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