Ontario: Peter Day, 27 July 1989
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp card with printed logo and a hand-written note from Peter Day mentioning that he has included a set of 8 stickers and 2 texts works which he collaborated with Finlay on. "They were streetworks put up in appropriate locales on Bastille Day. They also serve as a vanguard of the Finlay show I'm doing that opens September 16th, 1989 in Toronto. More street works for that & an extensive publication documenting the "French Affair:. How are you & Andy Goldsworthy? Urgently await his material."
JOINT:
Unaddressed printed envelope with a design by Day.

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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
42. 29.7cm, full colour on white paper offset lithograph which parodies a typical cover of the somewhat bizarre Scottish publication - the People's Friend much beloved of grannies and well-wearing middle class knitters. The joke here is that Marat's poisonous journal that condemned indirectly so many people to the guillotine was called "L'ami du peuple". One of Finlay's more amusing works. Slight browning or possible minor foxing due to paper else VG.

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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
59 x 59cm, blue on white silkscreen. The work is entirely typographical, the text - SWALLOWS LITTLE MATELOTS - hand-drawn by Michael Harvey. The font is light and sans serif - and the ease of line reminds one of the bird's flight against the blue sky. Additionally the Ws and Ms in the rhythmic drawing reflect the wings of these nimble birds. Finally the poet's words reminds everyone that these fabulously fast and social animals have similarities to sailors. A lovely print which in its simplicity deceives. VG+.

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Edinburgh: Morning Star Publications, 1989
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp card. The card has a drawing by Stephen Duncalf of small aircraft parked on grass. A fete champetre is an outdoor entertainment (like a garden party) so the visual poem likens the rather makeshift airport to such an event. One of 1,000 copies printed. VG+. ...

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
10.5 x 8.2cm, 4pp purple outer folder. Internally a 10.5 x 8.2cm, 4pp sheet with a poem

A Memory of the 90's
exquisite bloater

The decade is being compared to a cured herring. Given the date of publication Finaly presumably is referring to the 1890s - a decade that sometimes referred to as the "Mauve Decade" because of William Henry Perkin's aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion (and the folder here is indeed purple) and also as the "Gay Nineties" because of a perceived happiness despite the economic depression in the USA and elsewhere hence "exquisite". An "bloater" perhaps refers to the way such memories are dry and distant.
This was one of a series of "poems in folders". VG+.

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Edinburgh: Morning Star Publications, n.d. (1989)
A selection of seven different "bookmarks" by Lorine Niedecker, Thomas A. Clark, Basho (translated by Cid Corman), Cid Corman and four by Ian Hamilton Finlay. Two of the bookmars are reprints of earlier cards - Tree (Arbre) and Leaf bark - which are described elsewhere in this catalogue to which two additional cards are added both lists of "definitions" for words beginning with A: Affluence, Allotment, Angel, Apollo, Arcadia, Arrow and a relevant quote.
The edition size is not known. Morning Star Publications was the press set up by Finlay's son Eck (later Alex Finlay). While individually we have catalogued the earlier items as artist's postcards - here as a group we are identifying this as a paper multiple. All VG+. ...

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
42 x 30cm, red and black on white offset lithograph on satin paper. The text: "Planting trees of Liberty on the scaffold and placing death's scythe in the hands of the law." This was produced as a poster for the Saint-Just Vigilantes - is a epigram by Finlay on the unjust practices of the French revolution's Terror but a text that clearly Finlay felt could be equally applied to Strathclyde Region with whom he was in dispute over the rating of the Little Sparta Temple building - which they claimed was an art gallery, and Finlay claimed was a religious building. VG.

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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
42 x 30cm, red and black on white offset lithograph on satin paper. The text is a lengthy quotation from Marat; the poisonous revolutionary journalist who condemned many to death via his pen during the Terror. The text is amusingly critical of the Parisian character - Marat might have been a bastard but he was a talented bastard. This print was produced as a poster for the Saint-Just Vigilantes - and by extension is a criticism of Strathclyde Region who had raided Finlay's farm and "stolen" under warrant sale various works from the Temple in a dispute over rates. VG.

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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987 29.6 x 21cm, 4pp folded sheet with a proposal for a colour brick wall in green amongst a group of trees. Finlay takes the idea from Theocritus's Idylls "a line of green among the trees" and creates a work of land art in a modern garden in Athens. There is a drawing of the installation by Andrew Townsend. VG+. ...

Killkenny: Butler Gallery, 1989
16 x 11.6cm, 24pp. Original wrappers with printed green dust jacket. A catalogue for a show in Ireland but the booklet was designed by Finlay for the exhibition and could easily be regarded as an artists's book. Ten b/w photographs of Little Sparta by Martyn Greenhaugh are placed above quotations from Finlay's "Detached Sentences on Gardening". There is also a commentary of the works in the exhibition by Yvex Abrioux. VG+.

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Mejan d'Arles: Actes Sud, 1989
19 x 9.8cm, 48pp plus card covers. First edition of this artist's book that reproduces found b/w vintage portraits of unknown people. VG+

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