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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18 Sep

Posted at 20:55h in Artist's Books

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1966
10 x 25.5cm, 28pp (recto only) printed on different coloured papers (of different thicknesses) with card covers. Metal slide binding. Twenty eight concrete poems by Finlay. A rather attractive early book. Quite scarce. Murray has this as 3.19.

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19 Aug

Posted at 09:55h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1966
21 x 9.5cm, 24 pp plus card wrappers and illustrated dustjacket. A series of "constellation" works (as per Gomringer's vanguard poems) where trios of words are placed in a grid and combined to give different word pictures. Each is illustrated by a linocuts by Zeljko Kujundzic. .
This example is signed "love from Ian, 1966" in thick green felt tipped pen on the first blank end page. VG+.

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18 Jul

Posted at 20:47h in Artist's Books

N.p.: (Edinburgh): Wild Hawthorne Press, 1966
16.5 x 17cm, 20pp (recto only) plus bound in transparent papers. Original card wrappers with printed dust jacket. A series of photographs of ploughed earth by Audrey Walker, printed black and white, overlaid with translucent pages printed with Finlay's minimal concrete poetry. The text uses the metaphor of "turning over the earth" to illustrate the images of digging but the circular photographs represent the planet and Earth is indeed turning. This example is signed and dedicated on the inside front cover by Finlay in black ink to Maxwell Allan the sculptor. VG+ condition. Murray 3.16. Scarce.

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22 Mar

Posted at 21:42h in Artist's Books

Wein: Universal-Edition , 1966
14.5 x 20cm, 118pp. Original card covers. First edition of this German translation of a number of short plays by Finlay originally written in the 50s and translated by Estella Schmid. The Estate Hunters and Walking Through Seaweed are two of the works which were later published in a Penguin Anthology "New English Dramatists" in 1970 (see separate listing in this site).
Pages somewhat browned as the paper employed in the printing was cheap. This copy has an inscription in black ink by Finlay to "To Eduard/ with love from Ian/ 15 March 1966."

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18 Mar

Posted at 14:48h in Artist's Books

Stuttgart: Edition Hansjorg Mayer. 1966
Single sheet, 64 x 48cm, folded three times (24 x 16cm folded size), printed one side only. A single number from the famous Futura series dedicated to the work of Finlay. Five concrete poems are reproduced in b/w....

18 Nov

Posted at 13:54h in Artist's Books

n.p. : The Wild Flounder Press, 1962
11.7 x 17cm, 32pp. Card wrappers with blue on brown typographic design dust jacket. Finlay's third book of poems - as with other early Finlay poetry the language is Scots with touches of Doric. The poems all relate to animals and other creatures ("inseks" and a "fush") and there are papercuts by John Picking and Pete McGinn. This is the fifth edition of this book and the orientation and design of the dust jacket has been changed. There is a hand written ink dedication on the half title "For Paul (Robertson) Pette McGinn / 05". VG+ condition.

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18 Sep

Posted at 15:19h in Artist's Books

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1965
5.5 x 20.6cm, 28pp. Original wrappers and typographic blue dustjacket. The inner pages have single words or short phrases printed in an italic font. The text in page order is: "air/ in blue/ leaf/ blue bark/and blue leaf/ a leaf/ a barque/a blue leaf/ a barque in leaf-blue/aire" The book title Cythera is from the title of the painting - The Embarkation for Cythera ("L'Embarquement pour Cythère") by Jean-Antoine Watteau. The painting is usually regarded as highly romantic (in a love sense rather than the movement) and the couples represented by Watteau are heading to board a boat to go to the mythical idyll.
When one reads Finlay's text the sense is of romance, beauty and of the joy of being at one with nature. The text also reflects the idea of a journey and, finally, the punning of bark/barque and air/aire brings a musical aspect to the poem which might also be inferred in the painting from the stylings of the putti dancing in the air. One of Finlay's most beautiful books.
This example has a handwritten dedication by Finlay to a "Janie R" in blue ink and is dated 1965.

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18 Aug

Posted at 15:06h in Artist's Books

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1965
20.3 x 12.8cm, 32pp. Original wrappers and typographic dustjacket. Three pages have the word "ark" on thin paper followed by a group of differently sized pages that are white, red, yellow and blue in turn. On the first white page the word "arc" is printed. The biblical ark that Noah built was rewarded by the christian god with a rainbow "as a covenant between him and the earth". The book (again claimed to be kinetic) is a physical manifestation of that myth - the ark is given a colourful rainbow (with wrong colours) in page form. In case one had missed the meaning of the book a 19 x 8cm, 1pp insert was added quoting Genesis 2 13 - 15 which tells of the coming of that rainbow. VG example.

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18 Jun

Posted at 14:54h in Artist's Books

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1965
173 x 10.5cm, 16pp. Original wrappers and typographic dustjacket. Regarded as a "kinetic" booklet in Murray's catalogue raisonne, the text has similarities with that found in the Canal Stripe series in that the words are printed in a single long line (reflecting a canal waterway or an object moving in one direction or the flatness of a horizon). The first page is a series of blue dashes that then can on the next page be seen overprinted on the phrase "the little sail of your name in red. That phrase is then set on its own on the next page without the dashes and then finally again in the penultimate page overprinted with blue dashes and then finally the dashes alone remain. The effect is a word picture of a boat appearing and then disappearing over the horizon. That inferred movement is why it is regarded as kinetic. VG.

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18 Jul

Posted at 14:43h in Artist's Books

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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