Artist's Books - Unoriginal Sins

01 Sep DZAEZL. 1979.`

Posted at 14:04h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1979)
15 x 21cm, 16pp plus printed end papers (with a reproduced drawing of an aircraft carrier) and white card covers with dust jacket. The seven reproduced paintings by John Borg Manduca are accompanied by quotations and poems by Finlay.
The title poem has anagrams of the word "dazzle" accompanied by a "dazzle" painted boat - however the word dazzle is not part of the poem because the "camouflage" has worked (see separate listing for the unique glass work of the same poem).
Sadly the staples here have rusted and slightly discoloured parts of the inner sheets near the fold else VG+.

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24 Aug PETERHEAD FRAGMENTS. 1979.

Posted at 14:25h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1979)
15 x 21cm, 12pp plus printed wrappers. Illustrated by Margot Sandeman, the names of 19 fishing boats (eg Odysseus, Traveller, Illustrious and others found in the Olsen's Fisherman's Nautical Almanack) are combined by Finlay to give a visual poem of the trials and journeys of Odysseus printed black over Sandeman's light brown line drawings of nature, animals, vegetation and fish. The tale ends: "188, 190. Viking Warrior Supreme." VG+.

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10 Aug SF. 1979.

Posted at 14:38h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1979)
19.8x 16.6cm, 16pp plus card covers and printed dustjacket. Finlay's artist book examines six variations of the nazi SS logo - taking the original FF found in literature and noting how the letters were commonly substituted for SS in 17th century texts and, through typography developing the type into the double lightning strike of the notorious fascist organisation. Hence Finlay suggests there is some poetic equivalence between the evil of the Nazis and the "wildness" of nature - which Finlay makes clear in a note at the end of the book. (And anyone wishing to slur Finlay as being pro-fascist should read his description here of the SS as "notorious". Typography by George L.Thomson. VG+. Scarce.

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19 Apr PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHS. 1979.

Posted at 16:59h in Artist's Books

London: Coracle Press, 1979
21 x 19cm. 40pp plus card covers with tipped on self-portrait. First edition of William's photographs of poets and artists with reminiscences. There are 30 tipped in colour reproductions including William Carlos Williams, Myrna Loy, Herbert Read, Allen Ginsberg, David Hockney, Dorothy Brett as well as Ian Hamilton Finlay. One of 1800 numbered copies. VG+.

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18 Jul WOODS. 1978.

Posted at 14:52h in Artist's Books

Firenze: Zona, n.d. (1978)
21 x 15cm, 4pp (self cover) no binding. The four sheets with calligraphy by Ron Costley read:
white & bark, black & light, bark & light, white & dark and black& white
The combinations of the words (with the basic structure taken from the last coupling "black and white") along with the title "Woods" create visual images of different woodland scenes (each, of course, will be personal to the reader but in the main bark and light may bring the outside of a Birch tree to mind for instance). Finlay uses this trick of word transposition often in works - the changes causes by minimal alterations to words and their syntax interests him greatly. He feels that small changes in letters or word-combination causes large changes to their meaning or their perceived meaning.
This was published by Maurizio Nannucci of Zona Archives, himself a concrete poet. VG+.

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18 Jun TRAILBLAZERS. 1978

Posted at 16:41h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
7.0 x 9.5cm, 28pp plus printed card covers. Drawings of early planes based on vintage models by C. Tissiman are joined with their model names ascribed to famous artists, poets and composers such as Warhol, Betjeman and Maxwell.
"Waco Yoc" is suggestde as being by Kust Schwitters presumably because of the latter's interest in sound poetry while "Fokker D" is given to Andy Warhol - possibly because of its mass production in German factories. But it is hard to know all of the associations of the names for Finlay - was Bücker Bestmann assigned to John Betjeman just because of the similarity in names (Betjeman comes from St Benjamin apparently)? However the book title "Trailblazers" suggests that Finlay is saying these artists are foremost and revolutionary - which given his enemy Hugh McDiarmid is included is a little surprising (although I guess Finlay had to accept McDiarmid's role in re-popularising Scottish poetry even if they were no longer friends although McDiarmid had been Finlay's best man at his first marriage). VG+ condition.

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02 Aug HOMAGE TO POUSSIN. 1977.

Posted at 17:33h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1977
13 x 13cm, 16pp plus card covers and printed dustjacket. Ten reproduced paintings of tanks with camouflage some in vegetation by John Borg Manduca are joined with short legends by Finlay.
1. "To do Poussin over again, for the sake of the War God." abuts a tank with its muzzle pointed right at the reader.
another reads:
6. Pure Cannon Law. Which is a pun on the homophone Cannon - a canon law being an ecclesiastical law.
Unusually there are adverts for other Finlay book on the flaps of the dust jacket. VG+.

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20 Jul THE WILD HAWTHORN ART TEST. 1977.

Posted at 17:44h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1977
12.5 x 10.3cm, 16pp plus card covers and printed dust jacket. Artist's book with drawings by Martin Fidler with questions by Finlay as if the reader is sitting a test on modern art.
Question 5 reads:" Write a short essay on the theme: The role of the non-flying glider in Post-19th Century non-representational art".
One significant part of Duchamp's Large Glass was called by the latter the "Glider" for instance. We believe we could pass Finlay's test.
VG+ condition.

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05 Jul HEROIC EMBLEMS. 1977. ONE OF 50 SIGNED & NUMBERED COPIES.

Posted at 21:31h in Artist's Books

Calais, Vermont: Z Press, 1977 23 x 15cm, 54pp plus card covers. First edition of this artist's book designed by Ron Costley and with a commentary by Stephen Bann. The emblems are all drawings of military machines such as tanks or battle ships acting as metaphors associated with Greek mythology:

SEMPRE FESTINA LENTE
HASTEN SLOWLY

is associated with a Sherman tank with a flail which was used to clear minefields - hence moving slowly in order to later move quickly.
This is one of only 50 copies signed and numbered by Finlay in black ink aside from the larger edition of 750 copies. Rare deluxe copy. VG+.

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15 Dec IMITATIONS VARIATIONS REFLECTIONS COPIES. 1976. ONE OF 350 SIGNED & NUMBERED COPIES.

Posted at 14:02h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre, : Wild Hawthorn Press, 1976 12 x 11cm,28pp plus card wrappers and printed blue dust jacket. Artist's book displaying two b/w photogrpahs of sculptural works in stone (both war planes) by John Andrews and nine poems by Finlay including:

UNTITLED
after Aram Saroyan

LOTS
lots

Aram Saroyan is an American minimalist poet. The word LOTS plays in opposition to the form. Finlay's poem hints at the complexity found in Saroyan's poems despite their (relative) lack of words or even letters.
This is one of 350 signed and numbered copies. VG+.

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18 Nov THE BOY’S ALPHABET BOOK. 1976.

Posted at 18:05h in Artist's Books

Toronto: Couch House Press, 1976
19.6 x 20.2cm , 60pp plus blue card covers. An A-Z of pictures of Finlay's model boats, airplanes, weapons and kites by Paterson along with an alphabet - B is "Battle fleets are like families" shows a number of warships placed in size order like a bad family portrait. Not all of the texts are poetic - some simply describe the toys.
One of 1,000 copies printed this example is VG+.

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20 Dec TEXTBOOKLET 1. 1975.

Posted at 18:13h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre, Lanark: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1975)
10 x 5.2cm, 18pp (printed on one side only) accordion fold.
The first of three such "textbooklet"s which have similar formats. Here three texts are all displayed vertically: "Concrete effect?", "Crossword effect?" and "Weather effect?".
Finlay is playing with the three reasons why text might be shown in such an unusual manner - the concrete poem that uses verticality in many ways including inferring direction and falling, the crossword which needs vertical text to allow the words to be, well, crossed, and the weather where rain and snow falls and is a direct reference to the famous (and one of the first ever concrete poems) by Apollinaire "Il pleut" which Finlay knew well as he later parodied it in an artist's card. VG+.

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