Dijon: Association pour la diffusion de l'art Contemporain, 1988
21 x 14cm, 24pp plus card covers and printed grey dustjacket. First edition of this artist's book which claims to reproduce nine sepia-toned portraits of Harly "found in a cigar box by the artist". Geo Harly was a pre-war entertainer it seems and a man who loved his mother. One of 300 numbered copies. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
10.1 x 14.8cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a declaration that mirrors those of the Committee of Public Safety during the French Revolution where (here) Michel Blum) is referred to the Committee of General Security, for his various crimes and asking anyone wishing to offer evidence for or against Blum to write to Finlay. Dull and probably produced in the hope that some dirt on Blum might actually arise from someone reading the card.VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
10.1 x 12.7cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a quotation - "Racism of the anti-racists, terrorism of the anti-terrorists: the 1980's are the 1930's stood on their head." (sic) Typographically the two dates are set above in large font size with the 1930 upside down to make a visual correspondence to the each other and the text. Another attack card here without naming criticising Millet and her cohorts. Interestingly Finlay makes one of his rare mistakes in the text and incorrectly adds a " to the years. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
10.3 x 15cm, 1pp. Artist's card with an amusing adaption of the much loved children's first line of learnt French - taken from a song - here altered to become:
Le Pen est dans le jardin avec ma tante."
and dedicated to Catherine Millet. The "Le Pen" refers to the French leader of the fascist Front Nationale and one assumes the "aunt" is Millet. Nicely barbed. A monostich is a one line poem integral to itself. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
10.3 x 14.2cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a quote from Jean-Paul Marat to Michel Blum and Yves Hayat (obviously re-applied by Finlay) which suggests that they do not have judgement, courage or virtues. The design here is the same as that of the previous card "Cruel and ingenious sophists". VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
10.3 x 14.2cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a quote from Robespierre to Catherine Millet and Jonathan Hirschfeld (obviously re-applied by Finlay) which suggests that they are charlatans and that they will "be carried away like insects in its on-rush; your success will be as fleeting as lies and your shame as immortal as truth". The design here is the same as that of the following card "Paris is the sink of all virtues. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
20.9 x 29.6cm, red and black offset lithograph on paper. A typographic print with the title text reminding of how women supposedly knitted while watching the executions on the guillotine. Apocryphally they would drop a stitch as each head fell into the basket. Finlay uses this statement to have a go at Catherine Millet for her attacks on him in the Art Press, Paris - comparing her to the ghouls beside the scaffold. VG example.
There was a companion print to this one with the text in English issued at the same time - see our previous listing here.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
20.9 x 29.6cm, red and black offset lithograph on paper. A typographic print with the title text reminding of how women supposedly knitted while watching the executions on the guillotine. Apocryphally they would drop a stitch as each head fell into the basket. Finlay uses this statement to have a go at Catherine Millet for her attacks on him in the Art Press, Paris - comparing her to the ghouls beside the scaffold. VG example.
There was a companion print to this one with the text in French issued at the same time - see our next listing here.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
8.8 x 7.8 x 1cm, printed red box content of eleven small folding cards (sizes vary) - each with a concrete poem, a monostich or other poetry form. The text come from the book of the same name. This was the annual Christmas present from Finlay and was issued in only 200 examples. Slight wear and creases to the slightly fragile box else VG+. Scarce.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
10.7 x 8.2cm, 4pp. Artist's Xmas card wishing them aa "Happy Christmas", a "Happy February Battle" and a "Happy March 15" - the last two being dates of the battles of Little Sparta. This example has a handwritten note from Sue Finlay - "Very sorry I ddid not manage to sent this off to you sooner. Many thanks for your cheque. best wishes Sue." VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
12.1 x 13.2cm, 1pp. Artist's card where Finlay uses a quote from Samuel Taylor Coleridge "Nature is the devil in a fancy waistcoat" to create a new aphorism "Nature is a storm trooper in a camouflage smock". Finlay's fascination with warfare in Arcadia is to the fore here again - and the Romantic view of nature of wild and dangerous is reinforced by the idea of the fast moving and effective German soldiers typifying that aggression. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
20 x 10cm, 2pp. Artist's card printed black on green with a one line poem with the letters printed vertically. The poem is "treeleavedwithmists". The mist being the confusion of the letters, the tree the vertical line of text. VG+.
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