20 Dec

Posted at 18:13h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre, Lanark: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1975)
10 x 5.2cm, 18pp (printed on one side only) accordion fold.
The first of three such "textbooklet"s which have similar formats. Here three texts are all displayed vertically: "Concrete effect?", "Crossword effect?" and "Weather effect?".
Finlay is playing with the three reasons why text might be shown in such an unusual manner - the concrete poem that uses verticality in many ways including inferring direction and falling, the crossword which needs vertical text to allow the words to be, well, crossed, and the weather where rain and snow falls and is a direct reference to the famous (and one of the first ever concrete poems) by Apollinaire "Il pleut" which Finlay knew well as he later parodied it in an artist's card. VG+.

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15 Dec

Posted at 19:48h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975.
22.2 x 14.6cm, 8pp (single card folded twice) . A "calendar" designed by Laurie Clark for Finlay with each of the months being given new symbolism. For example, January has a drawing of "black bees and white bees", March is "glider-days", October - blue swan lake and December - the silent hive.
The use of symbols for each month is reminiscent of Le Calendrier Republican that was introduced on 24 October 1793 by the National Convention where the names of months were replaced with objects relevant for that season or month with the year beginning in March. Finlay/Clark's is less radical in that the names and dates of the months are not replaced but the symbolism is similar if more modern.VG+.

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06 Dec

Posted at 10:28h in EPHEMERA

New York: Galerie Sonnabend, 1975 17 x 11.6cm, 2pp. Announcement card with an image of Boltanski pretending to be a drunken clown in b/w on the front. On the back are found gallery information. This is a mailed copy hand addressed to M. Berg by Boltanski which also signed by Boltanski in black ink. VG+.

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30 Nov

Posted at 21:23h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press 1975
74.9 × 36.8cm, red on light brown silkscreen. A diagramatic drawing and typography by Michael Harvey is of a sundial and is joined with the Latin inscription UMBRA SOLIS/NON AERIS and the English alternative "The shadow of the sun and not of the Bronze."
The Latin and English phrases together remind one that the source of the shadow is in fact the sun not the gnomon in itself.

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25 Nov

Posted at 09:56h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Devon: Beau Geste Press, Nov. 1975. 30 x 21cm, 98pp. + pasted in booklet by Ben Vautier "Me Ben I Sign". 133 illustrations. Flip-flop perfect bound wrappers with pasted-on pictorial design (front and back - as is the pagination - creating the illusion of two back-to-back books). An especially noteworthy issue with pagework contributions by Filliou, Vautier (beyond the booklet), J.C. Lambert, Marcel Broodthaers, et. al. Issued in an edition of only 550 examples.
Christian Boltanski's contribution is a reprint of the pages from his second artist's second published book Description de Mon Accident from 1969.

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18 Nov

Posted at 15:50h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

Bonn: Galerie Klein, 1975 10.4 x 14.8cm, 2pp announcement card designed by Beuys for group show celebrating 5 years of Galerie Klein's activities. gallery’s activities. Beuys's reproduced holograph in blue lists the artists included in the show, namely: Joseph Beuys,Michael von Biel, Raimund Görke, Gotthard Graubner, Sol LeWitt , Klaus Mettig, Sigmar Polke and Fred Sandback. Verso gallery details printed in blue. VG+. ...

11 Nov

Posted at 16:41h in Letters + Documents

Little Sparta: Finlay, 11 November 1975.
21 x 18cm, 2pp (both recto) original typed letter on white letter head note paper (PAN incorporating PICK) which is hand signed at the end in ink by Finlay. A letter to Carlton Williers- which firstly explains the PAN letterhead - "so far as I know I am the only Scottish Garden Poet and the letterhead is just to keep me company".
Willers (of Philadelphia) was a known collector of art and a friend and one-time lover of Andy Warhol.
Finlay then thanks Willers for his "kind letter: and happily agree to let him stock the press' publication. Finlay bemoans the lack of a new York outlet for his work and he hopes Willers might make a difference.
Finlay points out that the Press now has a much greater inventory of printed material and encloses some lists of available works as well as pushing the medallions and ceramic tiles - "People rarely buy the tiles from the list and rarely fail to buy them if they actually see them.)"
A 33% trade discount is offered and there is a short discussion on how many US bookshops had cheated Finlay by "simply not paying"

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04 Nov

Posted at 11:06h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1975)
11.8x 15.1cm, 2pp artist postcard with a reproduced painting by Manduca of an air craft carrier. J. M. (Edmund John Millington) Synge was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival who wrote the bleak and realitic play The Playboy of the Western World. VG+. ...

31 Oct

Posted at 19:57h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Bruxelles: Palais des Beaux Arts, 1975
21 x 29cm, 32pp plus card covers. First edition, with black tape spine, of this artist's book which displays the various comic performances by Boltanski where he pretended to be various parental and authority figures in a child's life and common scenes relating to those figures - additionally the artist had painted various backgrounds for each scene. Twenty-two b/w images reproduced in the book, two per page. The performances were Le baiser honteux, La premiere communion, La visite du docteur, L'anniversaire, La toilete du matin. Two b/w images of the artist on every page. The book was published on the occasion of the exhibition "12 x 1, Une certaine actualite de l'art contemporain en France," held at Europalia 75, France, October - November 1975. Slight damage to the black spine tape else VG+.

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25 Oct

Posted at 21:13h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press 1975
74.9 × 36.8cm, light brown on white silkscreen on thick paper. The drawing by Ron Costley (from Finlay's instruction) is in faux Roman lettering - an attractive typography which has under the first word a drawing that doubles as both a symbolic sundial and a female vaginal mound. Venus, of course, was the goddess of love (sex) - and the shape of the gnomon and its shadows creates a capital "V" to again symbolise the female sex symbol.
One of c. 300 printed - this has slight marks in the margins but is overall VG. Scarce item.

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