Up: [[Life Writing]] Created: 2023-10-11 This is the simple idea of obscuring unwanted sections of text so you’re only revealing words that then become a poem. The first published book of erasure poetry is likely *A Humument* by Tom Phillips. Phillips does not think of himself as a poet. He’s an artist who went into a thrift shop with another artist friend, R.B. Kitaj, back in 1996 and he said, “the first book I can find for three pence, I’ll work on it for the rest of my life.” The book he found was ‘A Human Document’ an 1892 Victorian book by W.H. Mallock. Every page has been altered with paint, collage, and cutting techniques to create a new version. The first edition was printed in 1973, with five additional editions published since. Jonathan Safran Foer made a sculpted work called ‘Tree of Codes’ from the book ‘The Street of Crocodiles’. An interesting [article about it](https://bookish.livejournal.com/3124764.html) ![[Tree of Codes.webp]] ### Recommendations - Try different coloured inks - Recreate using typewriter font - Find sources with large legible fonts - Try not to overthink; don’t analyze the meaning > [!User] Kensho Studio *Seven Senses* Substack Dec. 7, 2022