A Quest for Identity. (6 vols)
N.p., 2008. Item #3924
A unique project by Phillips, with production spanning 1970–2008 (though containing envelopes within from as early as 1967), the 6 vols. that comprise A Quest for Identity contain original envelopes addressed to Phillips tipped onto hand-made paper, and constitute what Phillips considers a version of his “autobiography.” Envelopes are tipped in non-sequentially, though years are often loosely grouped together chronologically.
Per the artist: “This assemblage of envelope fronts, each torn according to a system that tends to include cropped stamps and vestigial postal information, constitutes the barest bones of a biography as I move from place to place, acquire real or fictitious honours, and am variously misrepresented and mis-spelt. E.g., in the space of three days in 1992 I received letters addressed to 'The Good Food Lover', 'The Occupier', 'Tom Phillips RA', 'Tom Phillips ARA Elect', 'T. Phillips/C35942', 'Trevor T. Phillips Esq.', 'Egregio Professore Sgr. Tom Phillips', and 'Sir Jom Phillips'. To hold a consistent identity in the face of such a barrage of approximations is a task of course that we all share. Yet it is someone's burden (the artist's) to represent the dilemma.”
6 vols., each 12.5 x 9 in., bound with leather spines of varying colors and paper over boards, except vol. 2 which is bound with a red leather spine and grey leather over boards. Vols. 1 and 2 have a lightbulb motif printed on covers and a rectangle, 8 x 5.5 in., impressed on the interior of the boards. Vols. 1 and 2 were bound by Pella Erskine-Tulloch; vols. 3–6 were made by Alice Wood and bound by Jane Stables. The volume number for these works is identifiable by stamped dots beneath stamped title on the spine. Varying leather colors for the spines roughly follow a pattern whereby the color of the stamped title from the preceding vol. is repeated in the next vol. in the color of the leather used for the spine. Pages are bound in sheafs of 2, and the last page is a single leaf.
As Phillips notes, the envelopes are torn “according to a system” that includes postal information, but removes any identifying information about the sender, save the postmarks in which the origin location remains legible, an interesting system that centers the autobiography’s subject, and how it is perceived by others, without ever revealing his interlocutors or their levels of immediacy or intimacy. A unique work that blurs the line between Phillips’ most well-known medium, the artist’s book, and the archive by making use of one of the most intimate series within an archive, correspondence.
All 6 vols. fine or near fine.
Price: $20,000.00