Altered Book Pages

Altered Book Pages

Inspired by the incredible work of Tom Phillips and his Humument, Altered Book Pages are also known as Blackout Poetry, Erasure Poetry and Found Poetry. Part poem, part artwork, they navigate the limitations of a single page of an existing work to find something new.

The news came in tears…

always changing, always imperishable
this beautiful eternity
scarcely a beginning.

Text: Callista, by John Henry Newman, 1855.
Image: Queen Uta, Naumberg Cathedral, 1249-1255.

This picture

a supernatural
companion.

Text:
Image:

SPEECH (You spoke)

with
ferocious
and impossible
perception.

Text: Mark Twain’s Speeches, by Mark Twain (Harper & Brothers, 1917)
Image: Self-Portrait with Mirrors, by Ilse Bing (Magazine advertisement)

He Looked Intently

How exposed he’ll be. (Real fear.)

Text: Jimmie Allen and the Air Mail Robbery, by Willfred Moore and Robert Burt (Whitman, 1936)
Image: Jimmie Allen and the Air Mail Robbery, by Willfred Moore and Robert Burt (Whitman, 1936)