Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
12 x 18.7cm, 36pp. Original wrappers and cream dustjacket with a design based on an old fashioned post office telegram. An artist's book of concrete poems (printed red on white) which are facsimile of typewriter designs by Finlay. One is reminded of Guillaume Apollinaire's calligrammes where Finlay has used the shape of the typed words to give additional meaning.
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Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
58 x 46cm, two colour silkscreen on thin paper. The word FLEECE is surrounded by words made up of the last four letters of the word but transposed into new combinations (ECCE/CEEC/ECEC/CECE) much like a covering (a fleece). The colour patterns also create a cross in the middle of the paper - hence along with ECCE (trans. BEHOLD), and the metaphor of sheep which is often used by christians this gives this work a strong religious flavour. The design was by Alister Cant on Bann's instruction. Very good condition. Murray has this as 1.6.
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Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
17.5 x 28cm, 16pp. Original wrappers and yellow typographic dustjacket. The second of a number of artist's books using the "Canal Stripe" title - the text internally is printed near the bottom of each page. The text reads "little fields/long horizons" and "little fields long for horizons" and "horizons long for little fields". The movement of the word order changes the meaning of each phrase in turn - the first is a statement of a landscape, the second suggests that there is an emotional desire by the little fields to have horizons (presumably they are too small to be able to create a horizon) and finally the joke "horizons long (all horizons are long after all) for small fields" indicates the geographical relationship between these elements of the world. This is again a favourite Finlay method - word order altering the world view around the viewer. This was the first time this was published in a printed item.
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Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn, 1964
20.1 x 24.5cm, 4pp. Single sheet with de Campos' text in Brazilian and English. A folded broadside featuring a concrete poem of words arranged on a single line without spacing that begin on the front page but ends on the last with the words "CIDADE. CITY. CITY". The fith publication by Finlay's Press and part of the poet's introduction of the South American concrete poets to the English speaking world. VG+
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Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press 1964
43.2 × 56cm, blue, orange and black silkscreen on paper. One of the earliest and also most important of poster poems by Finlay. A concrete poem and word landscape.
le circus!! is presumably the name of the boat which is equipped with a green and a red blinker on each side. It has the number K47.
The ship is fully manned but also has corks, nets and the usual fishing tools.
There is a phrase which says "they leap BARE-BACK through the rainbow's hoop" - which one might presume refers to fish but it seems also to be applicable to the boat.
The whole paints a picture in words but also from the layout of the sections one can see how the various elements relate to each other in this snapshot of a fishing trip. But the whole scene is also an entertainment such as one might find in the circus with some of the language used reminding the reader of horses and horsemanship.
An extremely difficult to find print this example has pin holes and some stains in margins. Some prints were sometimes pinned up on walls during poetry readings and then recovered for reuse later - this is one such print. Murray has this as 5.4.
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Edinburgh; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1964
26 x 21cm, 4pp + 1pp insert. The twelfth number of Finlay’s poetry publication with contributions by Jeffrey Steele, Paul de Vree, Mary Ellen Solt, Edwin Morgan, Dom Sylvester Houédard, J.F. Hendry, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Ernst Jandl and Lewis Carrol. By this number it was clear that POTH was mostly dedicated to the visual poetry movement and all contributions here display strong visual elements. VG+ condition
INSERT:
26 x 21cm, 1pp. "International avant-garde publications form" - items available for sale from Wild Hawthorne Press. Notes that "My Friend tree, 16 Once Published, Glasgow Beast, Concertina, Standing Poem" are out of sale." VG.
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Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
15 x 20cm, 32pp. Original wrappers and typographic dustjacket. The first of a number of artist's books using the "Canal Stripe" title (there presumably were others that were not published given the first is number 3. Each of the first eleven pages have one word printed on them - the first four words are hayboat, cathedral, housemill, windstack and then followed by haymill, cathedral, housestack, windboat, and then, haystack, cathedral, houseboat. A final double page has haystack, cathedral, houseboat, windmill.
The first thing to note is the placing of the words on the page are in a continuous line much like a straight canal waterway. The one word that does not change is Cathedral - a large land based landmark - but the other three works are constructed by moving the prefixes "hay", "house" and wind" around in front of the word endings "stack", "boat" and "mill".
The word change creates new hybrid scenes - the houseboat passes the housemill and cathedral, the boat becomes a windboat in a second scene and so on. Finlay uses this trick often in poetry and concrete works - the slightest change to a letter or a word entirely changes the meaning of the text. The signifier to signified relationship is disrupted by the most minor of alterations.
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Edinburgh; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1964
26 x 21cm, 4pp. The eleventh number of Finlay’s poetry publication with each page a reproduced design by John Picking. POTH was here printed for the first time in two colours - blue and yellow. This number is designated as the "Lollipop Number" - and the shape of a lollipop is a re-occurring motif in the drawings. The contributions are by Apollinaire, J.F. Hendry, Horace, Renzo Laurano, Ann McGarrell, Christian Morgenstern, John Picking, Michael Shayer, Kurt Sigel and Robert Simmons.
INSERTED:
OPENINGS.
2 x 15cm, 4pp. Folded single sheet. Promotional leaflet for John Furnival's Openings Press with contact details being for Furnival but also Dom Pierre Houedard (dsh). VG.
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Kranenburg: Hause Van der Grinten, 1963 20.9 x 10.6cm, 4pp. Printed only on the inside with exterior of card blank. Beuy's first ever exhibition invitation with a b/w reproduction of a linocut from 1959 and details of the Van der Grinten collection of Beuys works that were being exhibited in the family's house. The image is a drawing of a piece of ‘chain’ which was a symbolic part of the Büderich War Memorial in Büderich although Beuys typically has added symbols from magnets. It is interesting that some of the artist's formal symbolism and hermetic imagery is already present in this image. Additionally Beuys was still spelling his name as ‘Josef’ at this time (possibly after his father Josef Jakob Beuys). An extremely rare early announcement card in near mint condition. JOINT: As issued - 20.9 x 10.6cm, 1pp insert with details of the signed print issued by the Hause Van der Grinten in 500 examples. Typograsphic only....
Edinburgh; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1963
26 x 21cm, 4pp. The ninth tenth of Finlay’s poetry publication with contributions by Robert Frame, Finlay himself, Eugene Gomringer, Anselan Hollo, Dom Sylvester Houedard, Robert Lax and Edwin Morgan. This number was printed in part red on white and was designated by Finlay as "the Concrete number" and all the poems included can be regarded as such. There is an abstract illustration by Robert Frame as an insert (printed b/w).
ALSO INSERTED:
FROM BURGOS JAIL.
29.5 x 19.5cm, 1pp. Folded. Promotional leaflet printed green and black on white published by Appeal for Amnesty in Spain: for a poetry book protesting fascist political prisoners under Franco.
This was the first issue to break with the previous size format - thereafter while most numbers were 26 x 21cm, some were smaller or even oblong. New printing techniques were being used also - the earliest numbers of POTH were laid up using pretty much only type - these slightly later numbers were pasted up and some typesetting also used (which allowed more flexibility in design and made reproducing visual and concrete works more easy (and accurate).
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One poem by Morgan on the back page was mistakenly corrected by the printer (Gaol was corrected to Goal) so each copy was hand altered to indicate the correct format - it should have been thus:
BRAZILIAN "FOOTBALL"
1958 - Goal! Goal! Goal!
1962 - Goal! Goal! Goal!
1964 - Gaol! Gaol! Gaol!
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Edinburgh; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1963
30 x 21cm, 4pp. The ninth number of Finlay’s poetry publication with contributions by Paul Fort (translated by Nicole Rabetaud), Lorine Niedecker, Ronald Johnson, Rocco Scotellaro (translated by Cid Corman), Libby Houston; John Gray, and Paulo Marcos de Andrade (translated by Augusto de Campos). The inner double spread is based on Ronal Johnson's Sports and Divertissments - which Finlay later published as a stand alone book. The "decorations" herein (reproduced woodcuts) were by Peter Stitt. None of the poems in this issue might be clearly regarded as "concrete".
INSERTED
The "spring list" of books and other items available from the Wild Hawthorn Press. 19 x 29cm, 1pp. Folded.
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Edinburgh; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1963
30 x 21cm, 4pp. The eighth number of Finlay’s poetry publication with contributions by Ian Hamilton Finlay, Peter Stitt, Yury Pankratov (translated by Edwin Morgan), Andrei Voznesensky (translated by Edwin Morgan and Anselm Hollo), El Lissitsky, A. Khlebnikov (translated by J.F. Hendry and Edwin Morgan), Spike Hawkins, Jonathan Williams, Alexander Tvardovskii (translated by J.F. Hendry), and Mary Ellen Solt.
This was the first number of POTH to publish Finlay's own concrete poems - the work is Homage to Malevich - where a text block made up of combinations of the words LACK BLOCK and BLACK create a rectangle which is reflected in a drawing below (by Peter Stitt from Finlay's instructions). This work is published in other books by Finlay including Rapel. A significant section of the pages in this number are dedicated to Russian avant garde writers - mostly translated in part by Edwin Morgan and the number is dedicated to the memory of those writers including Malevich.
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