‘Indeed, there is no worthy sentiment of working for working’s sake; in a time-poor culture, Phelps’ art is quietly subversive. It is an act of accumulation and continual investment. It is an evolving document that bears witness to a practice that is often solitary, refined and possessing a modesty that belies the profundity of its engagement with the very heart of human experience. It would be remarkable to count the seconds, the minutes, the hours that has gone into this body of work, but for the artist they remain simply seconds, minutes and hours, there is no sum of its parts, no final solution to the ‘enigma’ – there is just a means if not quite an end.’
Extract from One and One and One and One, by Michael Stanley, Director Milton Keynes Gallery