70s

Strange Day Humument Fragment
Strange Day Humument Fragment 1970
Tetrad boxes
Tetrad boxes
Homage to Frith & Co
Homage to Frith & Co 1971
No Pussyfooting cover
Fripp and Eno No Pussyfooting cover
National Theatre poster
National Theatre poster
The Open and Closed Book
The Open and Closed Book poster
  • 1970
  • Tom Phillips starts a concordance of A Human Document completed over several years with the assistance of Andrew Gizauskas
  • Irma: The Score, first published in a small french avant-garde review (OU: ed. Henri Chopin).
  • The London Magazine (Feb), Extract from A Humument with a commentary
  • Pages Magazine, issue 1 Fall
  • Tom Phillips contributes an illustrated essay describing A Humument and his processes.
  • Pages Magazine issue 2 Winter an advertisement for A Humument Vol 1 published by Tetrad Press (priced at 30 pounds Sterling for the 10 prints), A Humument also appears in Issue 3
  • Irma performed at the Bordeaux Festival as a concert work
  • In One Side & Out the Other pub. Ferry Press includes 21 illustrations by Phillips using Humument procedures
  • One of the first Humument fragment prints, Just for Hus is published as a fundraiser to benefit HUS, his assistant Brian Eno's commune
  • A Humument is referenced in Imaged Words and Worded Images, edited and with an introduction by Richard Kostelanetz (pub. Outerbridge & Dienstfrey)
  • 1971
  • trailer, A precursor to A Humument comprising 75 original pages described by Phillips as 'garnered from the cutting floor of A Humument', is published by edition hansjorg mayer. Several other variants of A Humument are developed at this time, including Doc, a series of affidavits and testimonies which attempt to build up the picture of a lecherous doctor. These are abandoned, though examples remain in the Sackner Archive
  • Special edition of Panache Magazine, Future's Fiction, edited by Richard Kostelanetz includes pages from A Humument
  • Poetry Review (April)
  • A Humument Vol 1, Vol 2 & Supplement published in loose leaf form by Ian Tyson's Tetrad Press. Available on subscription in boxes.
  • A Humument poster is published by Tetrad Press
  • Fragments of text from A Humument are incorporated as pendants into the paintings Homage to Frith & Co, Come & Go and the series Ma Vlast
  • 1972
  • A Humument Volume III (Tetrad Press) A Humument Volume IV (Tetrad Press) A Humument Volume V (Tetrad Press)
  • Text fragments from A Humument appear in a series of watercolours, largely based on postcard sources, published by Tetrad Press as 12 prints: Ein Deutsches Requiem: After Brahms
  • A Humument features in Ginger Snaps: a collection of cut-ups / machine prose / word & image trips, Kontexts Publications
  • Tom Phillips designs cover artwork for the King Crimson album Starless and Bible Black featuring a fragment from A Humument
  • 1973
  • A Humument Volume VI (pub. Tetrad Press)
  • 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
  • Première of the opera Irma staged by the Ceolfrith Arts Centre at the University of Newcastle and later a second performance at York University, directed by Richard Orton
  • Pages 272, 135 and 138 from A Humument make a cameo appearance on the cover of the Robert Fripp and Brian Eno album No Pussyfooting.
  • Two series of gouache paintings The Quest for Irma and Ma Vlast incorporate fragments from A Humument
  • 1974
  • A Humument Volume VII (pub. Tetrad Press)
  • Cover artwork for the album Tom Phillips Words & Music features fragments from A Humument. (edition hansjorg mayer) while in the publication, Tom Phillips Works Texts to 1974 (edition hansjorg mayer) Phillips writes extensively about A Humument and other Humument related projects, such as plans for the ballet The Quest for Grenvill.
  • Tom Phillips contribution to the Scratch Music catalogue includes extracts from Irma and postcard images as the basis for a performance piece. Scratch Music edited by Cornelius Cardew, pub. MIT Press.
  • 1975
  • Imaginary Postcards, with Jonathan Williams (pub. Trigram Press), A Humument Volume VIII (Tetrad Press), Works/Texts to 1974 (pub. editions hansjorg mayer)
  • A Humument exhibition tours from London's Serpentine Gallery to the Gemeente Museum in the Hague and ends up in Basel. There, at the Kunsthalle, it is seen by Ruth and Marvin Sackner who are, over the next ten years, to become the owners of the whole manuscript as well as keen supporters of the continuation of the project.
  • Tom Phillips exhibition at Palais de L'Athénée, Geneva
  • 1976
  • Tom Phillips collaborates with John Furnival on Erik Satie an exhibition at Bath Academy of Art
  • A Humument Volume X (Tetrad Press)
  • 1977
  • A Humument Variations (Coriander Press)
  • Fragments from A Humument are incorporated into a commissioned poster designed by Tom Phillips to announce the opening of the National Theatre, London.
  • 1978
  • Tom Phillips first exhibition in America at Lefebre Gallery, is reviewed in Artnews volume 77/no.3, and illustrated with a page from A Humument. Artnews Volume 87/No.6 contains a review of A Humument
  • A recording of Irma is released on Brian Eno's Obscure label.
  • 1979
  • A Humument is featured in The Open & Closed Book, an exhibition of Contemporary Book Arts at the National Art Library, V&A Museum, London. The cover of the accompanying catalogue is designed by Tom Phillips and features A Humument fragment.
back to top