Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
7.2 x 8cm, 4pp. Artist's card printed red on light yellow with an abstract drawing by Gary Hincks on the front that looks like a close up of sackcloth .
Internally there is a translation of two lines from a fragment from Archilochus the Greek poet:
The deep red-brown
of rain-wet sailcloth
The poem is reflected in the drawing. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
12.7 x 8.6cm, 4pp, Artist's card printed black on blue with a poem by Finlay called LONGING.
to see
to see if it were
if it were but the smoke
the smoke going up
going up from the houses
the houses
of rocky
Ithaca
The poem describes the longing and homesickness of Ulysses for his home. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
12.5 x 13cm, 48pp plus printed boards Artist's photo-book with twenty-two b/w duotone photographs by David Paterson of sculptures and their sites in Little Sparta.
Finlay has had as a constant theme in his work a trick pof adding "signatures" (usually in a form of a plaque or a ground sculpture) to natural objects - eg "Poussin" at a viewpoint for a hilly landscape. These photographs are all of works that fall into that grouping.
The final photograph is of a boat on Lochen Ech which has as its name "UNSIGNED". One of only 250 such books printed as Christmas gifts by Finlay. VG+>
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
Three nested sheets, each 15 x 11cm (closed size), with texts on the folds and an illustration by Gary Hincks of a Zulu Skiff in the centre sheet. The work can be slowly opened to read in order:
UNTITLED UNFOLDER
bow curves bow cleaves
sail powers sail steadies
rudder steers stern stitches
TT 117 zulu skiff
Part of the :"Echoes series" this work is a variation on another poet's work - here Ian Stephen. The card is noted as being Christmas 1995 but also Easter 1996. VG+.
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Santiago de Compostela: Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, 1995
21 x 15cm, 6pp. Exhibition catalogue for a Spanish solo show mostly displaying the artists small "compositions" (dolls and abstract figurative shapes roughly made out of cheap materials) and his shadow works. One such work shown on the front of the catalogue and there is a short essay in Spanish by Gloria Moure and a biographical history of the artist. Two diecut binding holes (as issued). VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
11 x 11cm, 4pp, Artist's card printed black on white with a drawing of a boat and inside a poem by Finlay:
FOR MY
BIRTHDAY
I
want a
Kit
Wood
kit
On the surface this is a simple birthday request for a model boat kit made of wood however the boat drawing is of PZ134 - a wooden fishing boat called the Ocean Pride which was originally built in 1919. It was being restored by various enthusiasts - hence the real boat is a kit being made by hobbyists as well. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10 x 5.5cm, 4pp, Artist's card printed black on blue with a sound poem by Finlay on the front made up of the various abbreviations for ports. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
9.5 x 6.1cm, 4pp, Artist's card with a wreath on the front. The drawing could also be an image of a tyre hung from the side of a boat to stop the hull hitting the dock.
Internally a poem:
Elegy
Courageous 11
Faithful 111
The names of boats placed together leave the impression of a dedication for the dead. Perhaps even fishermen dead. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10.3 x 14.4cm, 2pp, Artist's card with a typographic design by Michael Harvey after Finlay's instruction.
YELLOW
VIOLE(N)T
YELLOW
VIOLE(N)T
YELLOW
The structure of the five words reflects the structure of a catamaran with its three hulls (Yellow) and the turbulent water (violent/violet) in between. Hence a symbolic flag for the vessel. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
9.1 x 9cm, 4pp, Artist's card printed black on green. A drawing of rubber beams by Gary Hincks illustrates a poem by Finlay internally:
LAKE ISLE
Nine bean-rows in
a bee-loud glade by
a shore where peace comes<BRdrop-
ping slow
VG+.
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Lille/Steenvoorde: Musee des Beaux-Arts de Lille/College Sait-Exupery de Steenvoorde, n.d. (c. 1994) 27 x 21cm, 48pp on thick paper plus outer card covers with plastic spine binding. Exhibition catalogue for an exhibition of work by students of the College Sait-Exupery based on a year long programme of tuition by Jacques Mayeux, Pierre-Yves Bohm, Gerard Duchene as well as Christian Boltanski with each student's work reproduced with polarised images in b/w. The work is clearly heavily influenced by Boltanski's interest in archive and there is one b/w reproduced photograph of the artist in the school studio. A collective artist's book released during the exhibition this is in VG+ condition and is very rare and unknown in the Boltanski reference books....
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10.3 x 14cm, 2pp, Artist's card printed black on deep green. The full title is "A SEASONAL MONUMENT TO THE SOVIET POET MAYAKOVSKY*" beneath which is the line "The smashed canoes of the Salix fragilis". Salix fragilis is the willow tree. Mayakovsky killed himself after his love affair with three different women turned sour - he left a poetic suicide note that included the words "The love-boat has come to grief/On the reefs of convention." The crack willow trees are known to break open (usually with a very loud noise) and Finlay's metaphor of a "smashed canoe" reflects the poem left behind in Mayakovsky's flat. VG+.
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