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A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel Hardcover – January 10, 2017

by Tom Phillips (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 167 ratings
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“One of the most winning and witty artistic experiments of recent time." –Washington Post

In 1966, Tom Phillips took a forgotten nineteenth-century novel, W. H. Mallock’s A Human Document, and began working over the extant text to create something new.The artist writes, “I plundered, mined, and undermined its text to make it yield the ghosts of other possible stories, scenes, poems, erotic incidents, and surrealist catastrophes which seemed to lurk within its wall of words. As I worked on it, I replaced the text I’d stripped away with visual images of all kinds. It began to tell and depict, among other memories, dreams, and reflections, the sad story of Bill Toge, one of love’s casualties."

After its first publication in book form in 1980, A Humument rapidly became a cult classic. This sixth and final edition, published to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Tom Phillips’ first experiments with A Human Document, presents for the first time an entirely revised and complete version of A Humument, and will bring to a close half a century’s artistic endeavor.

Illustrated in color throughout
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    392 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Thames & Hudson
  4. Publication date
    January 10, 2017
  5. Dimensions
    5.4 x 1.7 x 7.2 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9780500519035
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0500519035
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The English painter, writer, and composer Tom Phillips curated the groundbreaking exhibition “Africa: The Art of the Continent” at the Royal Academy in 1992. He is himself a collector of African art, specializing in the arts of Ghana and the Ivory Coast. His other books include The Postcard Century.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 050051903X
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Thames & Hudson; Sixth edition (January 10, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 392 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780500519035
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0500519035
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.52 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.4 x 1.7 x 7.2 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 167 ratings

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Tom Phillips

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
167 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite book in the history of the world
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2024
Verified Purchase
Book? Art? Artbook? Book art? Who knows. Who cares? It's brilliant, it's beautiful and elegant, and he's done it so well so many times that you can experience it again and again. I am trying to collect them all, but this one is my absolute favorite. It's one of the coolest storytelling techniques and most beautiful reading experiences you'll get at this high level of publication. Don't question. Just buy it.
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Spring Street Publishing
5.0 out of 5 stars Visual Treat
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2022
Verified Purchase
This book is a wonderful visual and literary treat! An inspiration for creating found poetry from the most unlikely source material. Nice hardcover book with dust cover, sold as the final edition.
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Anonblue
5.0 out of 5 stars ... my college days in the 1980s and it was like a little treasure box of an art gallery
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2014
Verified Purchase
I came across A Humument during my college days in the 1980s and it was like a little treasure box of an art gallery. It's not a novel, it's more of a collection of artfully-embellished word curiosities in book form.

This was way ahead of its time in relation to the altered book art of today. Delighted to see a new edition out --- many readers have "grown" with the author these past 30-some-odd years since the first edition.

370 pages of full page art in full color, signature-sewn (lays flat), printed on heavy glossy stock.

There is also an app for this but I prefer the visceral enjoyment of fondling and leafing through the pages of this diary-sized book.
6 people found this helpful
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TheReviewer.
4.0 out of 5 stars Complex.
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2012
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The book is a Palimpsest. So Phillips takes a produced work (A Human Document) and remixes it. The result is this novel. The plot is a bit convoluted because Phillips is limited to the realm of the words on the page to create a story. The pictures range from water colored to picture collages to pattern pages. At times its hard to read the story as a whole. It's like a picture book told with poetry. You can either focus your energy reading the words or looking at the pictures. But doing both tasks is a bit tricky. Not your typical book.
5 people found this helpful
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Ronald
5.0 out of 5 stars a wonderful book that I wanted a newer copy of after ...
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2015
Verified Purchase
This is a repeat buy for me, a wonderful book that I wanted a newer copy of after seeing the show of his work in a Chelsea gallery in NYC just a few weeks ago. What an inventive mind and skilled worker in language and image. Some pages here have to go directly to my creative writing students.
One person found this helpful
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Flyaway
5.0 out of 5 stars Serious inspiration
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2015
Verified Purchase
I just love this book. I do black out poetry and I find this book of art like uncovering buried treasure. Each page shows Tom Phillips diversity as an artist plus he compliments the words on the page beautifully. I just oooH! & Ahhh! through the pages.
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Taylor
5.0 out of 5 stars Once I figured out that this was a story about ...
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2017
Verified Purchase
Once I figured out that this was a story about Toge, this became a lot more interesting for me to read. Before, It was several meaningless poems. Together, they form the story of a man's life.
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Cristy
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2020
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Beautiful
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Top reviews from other countries

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paulo canha
5.0 out of 5 stars an amazing book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2024
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first class seller. an amazing book
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Nise
5.0 out of 5 stars heel leuk boekje
Reviewed in Belgium on February 5, 2024
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Kleiner dan gedacht maar heel dik. Het kan goed openliggen waardoor je ondanks de dikte toch alles goed kan zien. Ben blij ermee!
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Client d'Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars état et délai
Reviewed in France on June 1, 2023
Verified Purchase
Super pour le délai d'envoi. Cependant, en dépit que l'article ait été présenté comme neuf, mais la couverture est un peu déchirée et la tranche des pages salie. Mais, merci.
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EmanueleBrunno
5.0 out of 5 stars A Humument . A tragedie... by Tom Philips
Reviewed in Italy on March 1, 2018
Verified Purchase
This is an Unbelievable work, worth the money 100%. He is the real precursor of this special kind of 'visual poetry'
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Mrs. Deborah O'Hara
5.0 out of 5 stars glad i waited
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 18, 2023
Verified Purchase
i've loved this lifetime of work since first being introduced to it at art school but have held back until it was in what the artist considered to be it's final form and am very glad i did, as it does now feel "complete".

it's a remarkable body of work that rewards regular, repeat visits and delights and amazes all who see it.

if a larger format were to be published i would buy that also, although it is printed to keep to the dimensions of the original novel for very good reason, so that probably isn't going to happen and i'm very happy with this copy i now have.
One person found this helpful
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