In an NMR imaging system, two-pulse excitation sequences are used to acquire lines of NMR signal information. Artifact signal components may also be present during the times of NMR signal acquisition. In order to remove these artifacts from the center of the image, the artifact signals are alternately phase-encoded from line to line by alternating the phase of one of said excitation pulses from line to line. Fourier transformation is performed on the lines of information in at least the direction of alternate phasing of the artifact components, which relocates the artifacts to the edge of the resulting image.