Edinburgh: Reaktion Books, n.d. (1985) 21 x 15cm, 4pp subscription leaflet for advance orders of "A Visual Primer by Yves Abrious". Three b/w images of Little Sparta taken from the book. VG+. ...
N.p.: n.p., n.d. (2023) 7.5 x 5cm, plastic and paper and magnetic strip - a fridge magnet which quotes Finlay: "The same sort of thing happened in my dispute with the National Trust book: Follies: A NationalTrust Guide, which implied that the only pleasure you can get from Folly architecture is by calling the architect mad, and by laughing at the architecture." This is printed white text on a black background - there is also a black on white example. An odd item published posthumously. Limitation unknown as is the reason for creating this oddity. VG+. ...
N.p.: n.p., n.d. (2023) 7.5 x 5cm, plastic and paper and magnetic strip - a fridge magnet which quotes Finlay: "The same sort of thing happened in my dispute with the National Trust book: Follies: A NationalTrust Guide, which implied that the only pleasure you can get from Folly architecture is by calling the architect mad, and by laughing at the architecture." This is printed black on white - there is also a white on black example. An odd item published posthumously. Limitation unknown as is the reason for creating this oddity. VG+. ...
Liverpool: Tate Gallery, 1991
24 x 10.5cm, 8pp exhibition catalogue/museum handout with a reproduction of Finlay's Evening Will Come They Will Sew The Blue Sail on the front in black on white and a short essay by Ken Cockburn Four works reproduced in b/w internally. VG+.
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Warszawa : Galeria Zacheta, 1995
21 x 15 x 6cm, grey printed card slipcase content of 22 volumes of pamphlets from different participating artists in this large exhibition in the Zachęta National Gallery in Warsaw commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the second World War. Each volume is 21 x 15cm, pagination varies.
Finlay's booklet is 21 x 15cm, 24pp plus wrappers. String bound. It includes various images of works including Inscription (a quote by Mathiez on Robespierre) shown on a blackboard, and Sundial as well as a stone inscription with a text taken from Finlay's Detached Sentences on The French Revolution. Most of the works displayed were inspired by Finlay's fascination with the events in France after the fall of the Bastille.
The sundial has a latin inscription carved into it - E-CAELO. That translates as "Out of heaven" - which clearly refers to the sun rays that hit the gnomon and create the shadow.
Other artists include Christian Boltanski, Jochen Gerz, Anselm Kiefer, Jannis Kounellis, Gabriel Orozco, Arnulf Rainer, Lawrence Weiner amongst others. All booklets are in VG+ condition. The outer slip case (being very fragile and cheaply made) is a little torn and battered in places. A scarce publication especially complete.
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Belper: Aggie Weston's Editions, 2000
21 x 15cms, 16pp, plus cards covers. An anthology of poetry chosen by Clark which includes Finlay's A LITTLE POEM TO PUT YOUR EYES TO SLEEP LITTLE.:
A
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Two colour photographs (each 10 x 15cm) of a small maquette for a major installation in Den Haag - ET IN ARCADIA EGO .
This work was stolen from the Ingleby Gallery and it is known who the thief is (the work was in his bathroom on display for many years) but despite the person writing this telling the police who and where the work was they refused to investigate without further evidence. The same thief also stole significant items from Richard Demarco's storage unit in Edinburgh in 2013. There you have it.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
101 x 8cm, 32pp plus end papers and green embossed boards. A proposal offered to Laumeier Sculpture Park in Saint Louis, the book has four paintings by Grahame Jones of leaf-like shapes (cast shades) - the elm, the pine, the plane and the lime. The choice of shades (shapes) comes from a quote by Vigil (a plane-tree was a common garden element in those days as were the three others mentioned).
The work was installed in 1994 and consisted of the four named trees planted together on an earthwork - making Virgil's quotation literal. it is possible to sit under the trees in their shade.
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London: London Magazine, January 1969
21.5 x 15.5cm, 116pp. Original boards. A single number of this long running literary journal which is notable for the first ever publication of the work AFTER THE RUSSIAN by John Furnival and Ian Hamilton Finlay, The work was later reprinted as a stand along broadside by Wild Hawthorn Press. VG condition.
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Tipperary/Saint Paulinus: Coracle & Saint Paulinus, 2019 18 x 24cm, 186pp and hand boards with applied colour illustration label. A posthumous artist's book explaining "the history of the Spandau Garden in the time of the architect Albert Speer". Speer was, of course, a Nazi who was jailed at the Nuremburg trials rather than condemned to death like his fascist friends and colleagues. The book is filled with quotations taken from Finlay's letters to Speer and watercolours of the prizon garden by Ian Gardener. It is a lovely publication if more than a little contentious. One of 500 numbered copies. VG+. ...
Barcelona: La Correccional, n.d. (c. 2018)
15 x 21cm, 2pp. Promotional card for the translation service which quotes Finlay on the front: "The artist has this disadvantage: he has no equivalent of the word 'etc.'". On the back short biographical details in 3 languages. Fine.
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Edinburgh: Ingleby Gallery, n.d.
A set of five different 15 x 10.5cm, 2pp postcards each with a view of the gardens at Little Sparta taken by Robin Gillanders. Issued to help raise money for the Little Sparta Trust. VG+.
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