21 Feb

Posted at 21:15h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1967
57 x 44.5cm, black silkscreen on gold thin paper. A concrete poem where the word "ajar" is repeated several times in a vertical column. Because of the repetition of the same letters "wedge shapes" can be left in the text and the words still read easily diagonally - hence reflecting the angles of an item being "ajar".
Finlay's choice of paper was perhaps a mistake here as it is poor quality and many copies we have seen have the same fault as here - an ugly diagonal crease as the paper is brittle and always seems to us to be wrapping paper that could be better used for wrapping than print. Murray 5.9.

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18 Feb

Posted at 21:13h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1967
12.8 x 10.5cm, 32pp. Card covers with printed dust jacket. An artist's book the title of which refers to a wild bird - interestingly not found in Scotland - which had a loud piercing song which is often claimed to be like two stones being hit off each other. The concrete and experimental poems inside take different forms but one new format found here are two phrases one above the other which together give a poetic description.

THE BOAT'S BLUE PRINT
water

On consideration of the couplet one can see that the displacement of water by a boat might be seen in relativistic terms that the water is forming the shape of the boat above. Poetic if not good physics.

This copy has a handwritten dedication by Finlay in blue ink on the inside front cover (to an unnamed friend the sculptor Maxwell Allan from whom's archive this book was found) "Love from Ian, Easter '68." VG+.

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12 Feb

Posted at 20:20h in LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS

Copenhague: Berg, 12 Fevrier 1967
21 x 15cm, 1ppOriginal carbon copy of a typed and signed letter from M Berg noting Boltanski's news of the new gallery and that he was obtaining great pleasure from the Romero painting that he had bought.
After asking if there would be a new Romero exhibition this year, Berg mentions for the first time the novel he is involved with and asks if Romero might be interested in designing the cover?
Finally he also gives notice that he most likely will visit the Gallery in May of 1967.

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01 Feb

Posted at 16:30h in Poor Old Tired Horse + Broadsides

Stoneypath; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1967
30 x 21cm, 12pp. The twenty-second number of Finlay’s poetry publication - works by Charles Biederman and designed by Philip Steadman (typography). The text uses the metaphor of reading a book and turning a page to how new ideas and times enter life. Two b/w images of forrest landscapes. This number of POTH is much more like a standalone artist's book than the more typical journal. VG+ condition. Scarce.
INSERT:
23 x 14cm, 1pp. Black on blue. A promotional leaflet for Biederman's book Art as the evolution of visual knowledge. Art History Publishers.

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30 Jan

Posted at 09:05h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

Wide White Space, Antwerpen 1970
21 x 15cm, 4pp (single folded sheet printed recto only) - the exhibition announcement and handout for a group show at the conceptual art gallery - here with listed works by Beuys ("Objekt Joyce" from 1961 and a sculpture "Doppelspaten" from 1965) and others by Fontana, Vasarely, Appel, Tapies, Broodthaers ("Plat a moules" from 1965), Gaul, Van Severen, Manzoni, Panamarenko, Henneman, Heyrman and Palermo. Textual content only. VG+.

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24 Jan

Posted at 20:03h in LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS

Paris: Galerie Claude Levin, 24 Janvier 1967
27 x 21cm, 1pp a signed hand typed letter from Boltanski on Galerie Claude Levin letterhead paper to M. Berg.
Boltanski explains that he is now in charge of the new gallery but his interests in art have not changed.
He also lets Berg know that Romero had an exhibition where the critic Jean-Jacques Leve wrote that "he was the revelation of the year."

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21 Jan

Posted at 21:10h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1967
58.5 x 57.5cm, blue and red/brown silkscreen on white paper. The text which reflects shop store posters is visually over written by a white rhythmic line (in fact a proofreader's correction) which looks like a row of yacht sales. Bel at the bottom of the print is the correction to be inserted - the word "sails". A joke on one level (visual pun) but also a seascape with boats on it (the blue background being the water). Murray 5.8.

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15 Dec

Posted at 09:08h in Page Works & Contributions

Cambridge: Form Magazine, 1966 24 x 24cm, 32pp plus typographic wrappers. This single number from series of magazines edited by Philip Steadman, Mike Weaver and Stephen Bann - here the third number which contains a section called "Poems by Ian Hamilton Finlay" which reproduced four works = Star/Steer, Purse-net Boat, Line Boats and the untitled but usually known as Planet. Interestingly the "circle" of Planet is placed more anti-clockwise than the print in Linea Sur of the same work (the reason may just be a mistake in layout in one of the publications). Purse-net Boa and Line Boats are less commonly found and there is an annotation by Finlay explaining that a Purse-seine is a "new kind of net that makes an actual ring arund the fish. It has been immensely profitable.".
Elsewhere there are works by Ernst Jandl, Paul de Vree, Kenneth Robinson and articles Charles Biederman, 'The Electrical -Mechanical Spectacle' by El Lissitzky., Great Little Magazines No 3: 'G' with work by Kurt Schwitters, Theo van Doesburg, Mies van der Rohe, and Miklos Bandi. VG+

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03 Dec

Posted at 08:38h in Artist's Books

N.p. (Ceres?): s.p. (FInlay? or Tarasque Press?), 1966
23.2 x 11cm, 2pp plus blue printed wrappers. An unusual artist's book which appears to be hand made and has on the front a concrete poem by Finlay:

Arcady ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

then stapled inside is a much smaller sheet of orange paper (Finlay likes the combination of blue and orange - a colour scheme he uses often in prints and books) on which is a handwritten note in blue ink from Finlay: "Happy Christmas and love to Martin from Ian - Christmas '66"
This small book is in VG condition but two stains (brown marks) to the front of the wrappers and some creasing to the top of the sheet
JOINT TO THE BOOK:
20 x 12.5cm, 1pp hand-typed insert on pink typing paper: "Some questions on the poem, for Christmas Day." listing questions that may be asked of the poem and the writer's intent. VG+.t
JOINT TO THE BOOK:
20 x 12.5cm, 1pp hand-typed insert on green typing paper: "A question on the questions, for Boxing Day." Some browning to the centre of the page near the fold else VG.

This is an early and somewhat limited run artist's book, one of the inner typed sheets are mentioned in the Murray catalogue raisonne as the second "miscellaneous" item (7.2) but clearly Murray did not know of the rest of the publication.
Issued at Xmas, the poem by listing all of the letters of the alphabet and comparing them to Arcady (the mythical utopian country - a place to strive to live) Finlay is suggesting the world of letters, words and symbols is an utopian land for poets.
The additional typed letters may just be fun things to do on Christmas Day and Boxing Day but are really clues to how to 'read' the poem. And in the second letter how to 'read' the questions.
The hand typed and hand-written aspects of this publication may indicate that very few were produced - it is not unique given that Murray had an example of one of the letters but we have never seen another copy. Murray has this as being published by the Tarasque Press and that is possible but the hand- made aspects would suggest it was Finlay himself. Reading the published letters between Bann and Finlay for the months around Xmas 1966 does not find any reference to the book at all so we are for now flummoxed.

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18 Nov

Posted at 21:05h in Artist's Books

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1966
9.7 x 138cm, 16pp (recto only). Original wrappers with printed mustard dust jacket. Small artist's book with childlike drawings Emil Antonucci, which are mostly visual puns by Finlay but also all are patches of some kind. Finlay has used the metaphor of a patch in many different works and formats - often as a symbol of the poverty or resourcefulness of rural communities. The print here is light blue and black on white. Murray has this as 3.20.
Another in the series of books which Finlay has entitled with the word Stripe in the title.

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09 Nov

Posted at 15:30h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Paris: Gallery du Tournesol, November 1966
25 x 36cm, 28pp on uncut cartridge paper - an artist's book with 10 original lithographs by Juan Romero and a poetic text. Loose signatures which were released uncut (probably awaiting private binding). Published by Boltanski as part of his activities as a gallerist during his first steps in the artworld. VG+. Extremely rare.

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