Scope and Contents

For this piece that is based on a die, Tom Phillips lettered the text in varying numbered circles. the lettering is in the style of his text based wall sculptures where each letter is linked to adjacent ones. The text is the title of the poem "Un Coup de Des Jamais Abolira le Hazard" by Stephane Mallarme. Phillips writes that, " the first line of the foundation poem of chance procedures (and concrete poetry in general), outlines another dilemma which I translate as 'A throw of dice will never do away with chance'. Each dot on these giant dice incorporates the line and through the mysteries arising from the solid geometry of a transparent cube each "throw" gives rise to new configurations as chance plays its second role. Looked at from the sides, from the corners and from above, the cube's symmetry produces illusions and paradoxes of perception, hints of mirrors and fractures appropriate to each of these statements." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

This object was formed from by photocopied hand lettered text in the style Phillips uses for his text based sculptures, where each letter is physically linked to adjacent ones. The photocopied sentence of the title, glued onto the cube is repeated twice on each of its surfaces. The Sackner Archive also holds the hand-drawn maquette for this work. The text is by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

For this piece, Tom Phillips lettered the text in the style he used for his text based wall sculptures. Each letter is linked to adjacent ones. The sentence of the title is repeated twice on each surface of the cube. The text is by the philospher Ludwig Wittgenstein.Phillips writes, "The series of cubes began with a cage of wire made for The Globe Theatre's production of A Winter's Tale. A cage of wire words followed to exemplify Wittgenstein's proposition 'The Limits of My Language are the Limits of My World'. Printing this on an acrylic cube where the inside can be seen and, by an oddity of optics, experienced from the outside seemed to unite the reading of a statement with its perception as a metaphor. Reversing the text on the outside in a later version emphasised the trap of language that Wittgenstein describes." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents

For this maquette, Tom Phillips hand lettered the text in the style he used for his text based wall sculptures. He marked design changes in small, red symbols. Each letter is linked to adjacent ones. The sentence of the title is repeated twice on each surface of the cube and hand-drawn on each surface of the wooden cube. The maquette is slightly smaller than the finished work that is also held by the Sackner Archive. The text is by the philospher Ludwig Wittgenstein. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents Phillips presented this paper to the Architecture forum in the Reynolds Room of the Royal Academy of Arts on October 28, 2002. This reading version is formated into nine parts and 157 statements describing ornament which Phillips states "...is high art hidden everywhere. Ornament is the stylistic signature of time and place and peoples." Statement 109: The use of calligraphy in ornament is as old as writing itself and the graffiti artists of the late 20th century in New York brought calligraphic expression to a new height comparable with the best of Islamic letter-based art or mediaeval illumination." 110: Ornament, however, including the calligraphic type, has its own mode of communication. In that it has meaning it bypasses the customary modes of literal or metaphorical and inhabits Dante's final category of signification, the anagological, wher form embodies truth directly, making as it were a spiritual equation." Stored in box with Phillips notebooks, -- Source of annotation:...

Scope and Contents

Richard Minsky nound this book. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.