Historical Evolution of the Phillpot Diagram
Clive Phillpot's 1982 taxonomy of the artist book — and Kione Kochi's updated version for Half Letter Press — maps the socioeconomic forces that dictate the life of a book-as-art.
The diagram's history is rooted in the effort to institutionalize and define the "Artist Book" as a specific medium during the late 20th century.
Clive Phillpot, while serving as the Director of the Library at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), developed the original version of this diagram in 1982. His goal was to provide a rigorous taxonomic structure for librarians and curators. At the time, the term "artist book" was being applied broadly to everything from hand-painted one-offs to mass-market paperbacks.
Phillpot's diagrams were polemic tools designed to isolate "Book Art" as a distinct category where the artist uses the book's specific mechanics — sequencing, paging, and portability — as the primary medium.
The Democratic Multiple
The history of this diagram is tied to the 1960s and 70s movement of the "Democratic Multiple." Artists like Ed Ruscha and groups like Fluxus sought to bypass the gallery system by creating cheap, mass-produced books. Phillpot used the diagram to champion these "multiples" over "book objects" (sculptural, unique works). He argued that the true artist book belonged in the "Multiple" or "Large Print Run" strata because its value lay in its ability to be widely distributed, rather than its rarity.
Reshaping the Institution
Phillpot's work at MoMA shifted how the institution collected these works. By categorizing books based on their position between "Art" and "Books," he moved the acquisition of these items from the curated print departments into the museum library. This established the library as a site of active artistic engagement rather than just a repository for research materials.
The Kione Kochi Update
The version you are looking at was updated by Kione Kochi for Half Letter Press to address the collapse of traditional publishing hierarchies. While the 1982 original focused on the tension between the gallery and the bookstore, the modern update reflects the historical shift toward decentralized production. The inclusion of the "Digital" strata acknowledges that the "Democratic Multiple" has moved from the offset press to the PDF and Print-on-Demand (P.O.D.) services, effectively removing the "Gatekeeper" (the Pear side) from the equation entirely.
The diagram remains a standard reference in Art History and Library Science curricula. It serves as the primary conceptual bridge between the Fine Art tradition (centered on the unique object) and the Mass Communication tradition (centered on the disseminated idea). It is historically significant for being the first visual attempt to map the socioeconomic forces — dealers, publishers, and distributors — that dictate the life of a book-as-art.