Skip to main content

Notebook: MCMLXV/III / Phillips, Tom ; Hamilton R ; Feldman M ; Cage J ; Kitaj R ; Higgins D ; Zukofsky L ; Burroughs WS., 1965

 Item
Identifier: CC-34209-35896

  • Staff Only
  • Please navigate to collection organization to place requests.

Scope and Contents

The notebook consists of a sketches for art works, poems, articles clipped from newspapers, meetings, reminders, quotations, philosophical thoughts, and moneys due and owed Phillips. The beginning of the book has a permutation poem on the word "open," e.g., open openn opin opens openne opone oun ... The next section consists of full-length figurative drawings and notes. The middle section deals with ideas for the painting "C LOOPSEEND." This is followed by notes for an experimental music score with a reference to John Cage and a mushroom poem. On a later page, Phillips appropriates Marshall MacLuhan's "The Medium is the Massage" to "The Tedium is the Message." Such wordplay antedated his 1995 print relating to the auction of Van Goth's painting,"Irises" for 65 million dollars in NYC, "Auctions Speak Louder than Words." The last eighth of the book (1966) begins the experiments with the "Humument" format of cancelling text. The first try is cancelling words using superimposed x's of a fragment of a newspaper article to achieve the phrase, "rules without image pressure." He mentions "Treated Book, short Victorian novel, rights ended, publisher defunct with only left hand poem." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates

  • Creation: 1965

Creator

Extent

0 See container summary (1 notebook + pages (ink, ink colored, graphite, handwriting, collaged) + postcard + clippings (newspaper) (156 pages)) ; 16.1 x 10 x 1.2 cm

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Physical Location

alc. Phillips b

Custodial History

The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, on loan from Ruth and Marvin A. Sackner and the Sackner Family Partnership.

General

Published: London, England : [Publisher not identified]. Nationality of creator: British. General: About 1 total copy. General: Added by: RED; updated by: MARVIN.

Repository Details

Part of the The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry Repository

Contact:
125 W. Washington St.
Main Library
Iowa City Iowa 52242 United States
319-335-5921