Tom Phillips

Tom Phillips's work can be categorised as visual communication due to how he plays with text and how he illustrates it. His works consist of book pages which he has coloured in, drawn on or changed in some way to create a poem made of the already printedwords on the pages.

(pages taken from his book " A Humument")

I really like the way he works because it is a simple concept, however his poems can have a great meaning to them. He also takes an ordinary book page and makes it visually more interesting. By selecting individual words, he also reduces the amount of reading a usual book page would take to read, going completely against the traditional conventions of reading. He combines visual art with verbal art to make one piece and this is the element of his work I like most. Phillips wanted to be an artist from an early age and said that he "learned the word artist and discovered that an artist is someone who does not have to put his paints away, so decided to become one". He was generally an all round artist, dabbling not only in this type of art but music and performance art as well. He began reading English Literature when he was 21 which is perhaps where he started to become fascinated with words. In 1966 he exhibited at the Royal Academy and started his work on "A Humument". When he first had the idea to create this book he said "I made a rule; that the first (coherent) book I could find for threepence (i.e. one and a quarter pence) would serve.". He then found a copy of "A Humument Document" by W. H. Mallock published in 1892 which he thought was so rich in vocabulary and proved useful for the art he was about to create. In 1976 the first private publication of "A Humument" was created. I have come across his works from this book before during my A-Level as I myself was working with text at the time. I really liked his works and how some concentrated on colour whereas some were monotone but focused more on pattern. I am still fascinated by how he managed to create a different piece for each page of the book and never run out of ideas! My mum first introduced me to him when she saw I was working with text, and I have now come across him again during this pathway and hope to use him as inspiration for a future piece. His website containing all the pages from the book can be found here: http://humument.com/