Eindhoven: Van Abbemuseum, 1994
1.7cm dia. black circle with the text THE CHAIR OF THE ARTIST AT HARVARD printed in tiny typeface in the centre. Unlimited multiple but now very hard to find. VG+. There are three known variants of this multiple - a small black circle, a larger black circle and a 2.5 x 2.5cm black square.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1994)
13.5 x 7.2 cm, 12pp plus card covers. Artist's book which has four one-line poems (one per page) thus:
the simplicity of sackcloth
the self-effacement of sackcloth
the aspiration of sackcloth
and
the REVOLUTION of sackcloth.
The lowly fabric (traditionally made out of goats hair) is cast by Finlay in its place but by the fourth line is allowed to turn against its oppressors. A reference to the French and other revolutions. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1994) 12.2 x 8.5cm, 4pp artist's card with a drawing by Gary Hincks on the front. Internally there is a poem by Finlay: <BR><BR> HOSTA FLOWER<BR><BR> An old summer dress<BR> shared by sisters<BR> its purple faded<br> to lavender, fitting<BR> no-one, a thousand<BR> times in the wash<BR><BR> The Hosta Flower is the Plantain lily which invaded America in the 1800s from Asia. Finlay sees the colour as reminiscent of the faded colours of poor families. VG+....
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1994)
8.4 x 6.2cm, 4pp artist's card with a concrete poem internally:
The words:
linen coif in the shape of a cloud l'Ecole re Pont-Aven Hommage a Emile Bernard are placed in the shape of a cloth bonnet with the side ties.
BR>
Emile Bernard was a post-impressionist painter who often took Pont-Aven as his source for landscape and town paintings. A linen coif was a bonnet (originally for both sexes but latterly only women wore them)., ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.. (1994) 5.5 x 14.8cm, 4pp artist's car with a text 'Schooner, sail your snows to the Pole." in the middle pages. A monostich is a one-line poem. Here the schooner's sails are being compared with snow because of their colour - and the pun of the word "Pole" indicates a double meaning of the sails being hoisted to the masts. VG+....
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
10 x 7.4cm, 8pp plus wrappers and printed dustjacket. Artist's book with a poem by Finlay and a quote from Virgil's Aeneid about sailing which regards ships as "nymphs of ocean".:
"ships
nymphs
nymphs
ships
.
bark
barque
barque
bark
VG+.
JOINT (LAID IN):
10 x 4.5cm, 2pp explanatory card ('bookmark") by Thomas A. Clark which points to the transformation of boat into wood and wood into boat as well as the classical tropes of change in gods and humans. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
8.4 x 12.5cm, 1pp card printed red and black on grey with the latin inscription that translates to the "the final argument of kings" which traditionally meant a resort to arms, however Finlay wryly notes that :We have noting to add to our previous correspondence" is a modern equivalent and notes it as "the final argument of our rulers." VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
9 x 9cm, 4pp card with a painting of an archery target on the front and inside a definition:
Arrow, n. a heart seeking missile.
and a quotation about cupid from"Myths" by Bulfinch. Finlay updates the original Greek myth to a modern times where the "heat-seeking" missile is replaced by the "heart-seeking" arrow. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
12.7 x 16.3cm, 4pp with 1pp transparent leaf internally:
on the left and right of the internal pages are colour photographs of two metal sculptures - both wheel barrows one carrying fallen oak leaves and the other flowering pots. The photographs were taken by Antonia Reeve. The text on the leaf reads:
Be good and with me walk/The old devalued park/Where autumn has set in. - a line from a poem by the American poet Karl Shapiro.
The work shows the two seasons of Autumn and Spring - with the contents of the barrow reflecting the gardener's tasks at each time. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
13 x 6.5cm, 4pp card with a poem on the front:
Wild
post.
rose
van
The post and van words are in italics. Recombining the words in different orders gives different images and meanings while the original wild rose and post van are both objects that are red in nature (the card is printed in red on white). VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
15.3 x 14cm, 2pp card displaying Robin Gillander's photograph of a work in the garden of Little Sparta dedicated to Lorine Niedecker (a friend and a poet published by Finlay in some of his earliest initiatives. The work is hard to read because of shadows.
The image was also used in a book in honour of the dead poet.
This example has been stamped and posted and hand-addressed by Finlay to his son Eck. VG+ with minor postal marks.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1994)
5 x 5.4cm, 4pp artist’s card which has the text:
arc-en-ceil
looping-the-loop
The rainbow is compared poetically with an airplane manoeuvre. VG+. ...