''A Humument: A treated Victorian novel'' is an

altered book An altered book is a form of mixed media artwork that changes a book from its original form into a different form, altering its appearance and/or meaning. An altered book artist takes a book (old, new, recycled or multiple) and modifies it in any ...

by British artist Tom Phillips, published in its first edition in 1970 and completed in 2016. It is a piece of art created over W H Mallock's 1892 novel ''A Human Document'' whose title results from the partial deletion of the original title: ''A Hum~~an doc~~ument''. Phillips drew, painted, and

collage Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. ...

d over the pages, while leaving some of the original text to show through in the form of

erasure Erasure () is an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1985, consisting of lead vocalist and songwriter Andy Bell with songwriter, producer and keyboardist Vince Clarke, previously known as co-founder of the band Depeche Mode and a membe ...

. Through this process, A Humument is a new story with a new protagonist named Bill Toge, whose name appears only when the word "together" or "altogether" appears in Mallock's original text. From being created over many decades, it follows a

nonlinear narrative Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative, or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique, sometimes used in literature, film, video games, and other narratives, where events are portrayed, for example, out of chronological order or in other ways ...

, and in recent editions Phillips has rewritten pages to include references to modern history that in part appear to be

anachronistic An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common type ...

Background

When asked about the book, Phillips replied:

"It is a forgotten Victorian novel found by chance ... plundered, mined, and undermined its text to make it yield the ghosts of other possible stories, scenes, poems and replaced the text e'dstripped away with visual images of all kinds."

''A Humument'' was begun in the 1960s. In 1970, Tetrad Press put out a small edition. The first trade edition was published in 1980 by

Thames & Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

, which also published revised editions in 1986, 1998 and 2004; the fifth edition was published in 2012. Each edition revises and replaces various pages. Phillips's stated goal was to eventually replace every page from the 1970 edition. Phillips used the same technique (always with the Mallock source material) in many of his other works, including the illustration of his own translation of

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

's ''

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * Inferno (1953 film), ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * Inferno (1973 fi ...

'', (published in 1985). The altered text has been sometimes used in "reconstructions" or "realizations" where artists create a work using the fragmentary text as a basis. For instance in the early 1970s, the Music Department at the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

performed an opera, '' Irma'', devised by Phillips in 1969, whose lyrics and plot were based on ''A Humument.'' Tom Phillips created a digital version of ''A Humument''
A Humument App for the iPad
released in November 2010. The app was critically acclaimed, receiving favourable reviews in ''The Independent'' (22 Nov), ''Eye Magazine'' blog (17 Nov), and ''Design Observer'' (5 Nov). A version for the iPhone was released 17 January 2011. A 'final' printed edition, extensively reworked by Phillips, was published by

in 2016, and reviewed by Clare Pettitt in the ''Times Literary Supplement''."Strange labour", ''Times Literary Supplement'', 31 March 2017, pp. 10-11

Notes

External links

Tom Phillips' official web site
*Adam Smyth,
Double Act
" ''London Review of Books'', 11 October 2012 (review of fifth edition). {{DEFAULTSORT:Humument, A Artists' books 1970 books Experimental literature Thames & Hudson books