[no title: p. 123] 1970

Curator: This is a page from "A Humument," Tom Phillips's altered book project, a lifelong work begun in the late 1960s. Editor: It's oddly cheerful, despite the fragmented text. The pastel colors and almost cartoonish butterfly give it a whimsical feel, but there's a sense of melancholy underneath. Curator: Phillips takes an obscure Victorian novel and selectively blacks out words to create new poems and images, reflecting his own artistic and intellectual journey. It is a commentary on language and meaning. Editor: The butterfly—or is it a moth?—paired with the words "a hum recording movements" evokes the ephemerality of thought, doesn’t it? A monument to fleeting ideas. Curator: Precisely. And the phrases he reveals—"poetry, drawing, music, knowledge—I tried them all"— hint at a quest for meaning, filtered through the source text. Editor: It does read as a record of searching. What is uncovered resonates with an existential grappling. Curator: Phillips's intervention transforms a forgotten text into a reflection on the creative process itself. Editor: A beautiful reminder that even within constraints, new forms of expression can emerge.