Konig: Postkartenverlag, n.d. (c. 1980)
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp. artist's postcard with the title vitrine/installation from 1966 in colour on the front, verso standard postcard design. This example is signed in red felt tipped pen on the front by Beuys. VG+.
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Dunsyre, Lanark: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1980)
6 x9.2cm, 8pp plus card wrappers and printed dust jacket. The four printed pages has one word each:
5. Baroque
6. Barque
7. Bark
8. Baroque
and there is a reference to W. Lee Rensselaer's Names on Trees on the inner cover. That book is a literary and artistic analysis of the story of Angelica and Medoro in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. One aspect of Angelica's love for Medoro is that she carved the lovers' names on trees. Hence once can read the book as a visual poem of boats (Barque/Bark) and woods (Bark/Baroque) with the reference to baroque also referring to the art style of the 17th century. VG+
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Dunsyre, Lanark: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1980)
13.6 x 8cm, 4pp plus blue wrappers. Artist's book where Finlay has only two different paper types bound together in the wrappers - one is blue and the other is white. There is a reference to Henty Vaughan's "The Timber. Silex Scintillans" on the back fold.
Vaughan was a metaphysical poet of the 17th century and Silex Scintillans published in 1650 was a major religious text which was published in two volumes with a significant gap in time between them (possibly due to illness) . The Two Billows of the title refers to the two volumes and the change in colour of the two pages reflects the differences in the two books. A visual poem with a literary and religious meaning although the boat vignette on the cover may suggest the more literal meaning of two billows - two pushes of air helping the vessel steer a true course. VG+.
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Aisbach: Verlaggaleria Leaman, 1980
31 x 27cm, printed plastic and card folder with metal ring binder. Content of individual contributions and multiples by a wide range of artists (many from the fields of conceptual art, visual poetry and some of the Fluxus- affiliated artists) including Filliou Monnier, SAito, Armleder and others as well as Boltanski.
Boltanski includes two sheets of "composition" images not shown elsewhere - stalk white on black outlines of objects which might be roughly painted or processed photographically (it is not clear which). Palms trees, a woman carrying a basket, fleeing couple, a man cutting wheat. The title Composition Feeriques suggests these are images of a "fairy world" and perhaps one can read a rough narrative into the eight images. Fine in like folder. Scarce. Not mentioned in any catalogue raisonne.
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Harvard: Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1980
2.5 x 2.5cm, white paper square with the text THE EXHIBITION OF PERFECT printed in tiny typeface in the centre. Unlimited multiple but now very hard to find. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1980
60 x 82cm, black on white offset lithograph with two drawings by Gary Hincks. The first cruiser is shown in elevation, the second also but with camouflage nettings over the bows. The allusion is to classical portraits of the human form - unclothed and clothed.
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Edinburgh: Graeme Murray Gallery, 1980
21 x 15cm, 20pp plus card covers and printed dust jacket. An early monograph and exhibition catalogue discussing one aspect of Finlay's work. Illustrated in b/w throughout. as well as reprinting excerpts from the New Arcadian Dictionary and catalogue of works in the exhibition. VG+.
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Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 1980
30 x 21cm, 1pp offset lithograph promotional leaflet for the first edition of the book Coyote which documents Beuys New York aktion I love America, America Loves me. Badly reproduced but vintage - this has been folded for mailing, else VG.
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Glasgow: Collins Exhibition Hall, 1980
23 x 12cm, 30pp. Original wrappers with printed dust jacket . One centre page fold out. An exhibition catalogue with an introductory text by Stephan Bann and various illustrations including a garden plan by Albert Speer (who Bann and Finlay had been corresponding with and which was to cause trouble later) and a musical note by Wilma Patterson plus one fold out sheet showing various "plaques" by Finlay in the landscapes. At the back of the catalogue there is a page work by Finlay - white laid paper sheets are labelled MOSS in small type at the bottom then a dull green laid paer sheet has the text "refinements of words" on it. VG+.
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Calais: Musee de Calais, 1980
60 x 42cm, three colour silkscreen exhibition poster with a duotone image of one of Boltanski's photographs of toy models. Some pin holes and slight damage to corners else VG. Scarce.
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Dusseldorf: Kunstmuseum Dusseldorf, 1980
15 x 10.5cm, 4pp announcement card for a show of various works from the period 1965 - 1980. The front of the card shows a colour image of the Ruckenstitze eines feingliedrigen Menschen (Hasentypus) aus dem 20. Jahrhundert (taken by Christian Eisenguss). VG+.
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Little Sparta; Wild Hawthorn Press, 1980.
14.3 x 8.5cm, c.32pp plus original wrappers. Artist's book with a number of descriptive poems by Finlay which end with a pointing finger as if the artist expects the scene to be drawn by the reader on a blank facing page.
"A statue of Eve reaching up to pick an apple, placed under an apple tree."
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