[THERE HAS BEEN A CHANGE OF TOPIC FOR THIS SESSION]
'How to Destroy a Book: Tom Phillips’s A Humument'
Tom Phillips, who died earlier this week, had a long and distinguished career as a visual artist. He was a member of the RA and only the second living artist to have a solo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. His most lasting achievement might actually be a book, however. A Humument was his 50-year project to creatively deface a second-hand novel, which went through many editions and iterations. As much as anything, A Humument was a long-standing experiment and investigation into the nature of books and bookishness. In a tribute to Tom, this talk discusses the work’s evolution and legacy, but and also its significance from the perspective of book history and the scholarship of material texts.
ATTENDANCE FREE IN PERSON OR ONLINE WITH ADVANCE BOOKING