14 Mar

Posted at 09:47h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
15 x 10.6cm, 16pp with card covers and blue printed dust jacket. Six drawings by Hinks illustrate newly created maritime proverbs by Finlay:

"Cross-winds straight wakes" and "Bilges beget rainbows".

The former being a metaphor for criticism causing considered responses or a doubling down on an opinion, the second a reference to the way all bilge water shimmers due to the pollution of oil - the new proverb suggesting good things can come from bad. Finlay's proverbs really should be more commonly used - they are wonderful.
One of only 250 published, VG+

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15 Dec

Posted at 09:49h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
15 x 24cm, 18pp plus printed green boards. Artist's book with nine b/w photographs by Robin Gillanders of the path to Little Sparta which in turn shows the ground, the gate from a little distance and then the sign on the gate. The first sign informs the public that "Following the authority's action against the Garden Temple Little Sparta is closed to the public". The second announces that "Strathclyde Region made war on little Sparta/Strathclyde Region is no more." - an adaption of a Committee of Public Safety announcement about Lyons and the final biting sign "Closed with the support of the Scottish Arts Council" which is a parody of the usual acknowledgement statement the SAC required to gain funding.
This was Finlay's retort at the end of the "Little Sparta Wars" where Strathclyde Regional Council fought with the artist over a ratings issue of a building they claimed to be an art gallery while Finlay believed to be a Garden Temple. By closing Little Sparta and claiming the Garden Temple was reclassified as a "store" then Finlay found a way of ending the dispute allied to the fact that Strathclyde Region was abolished due to the UK Government's reorganisation. His dislike to the Scottish Arts Council remained however as he felt they had not given him any support at all in his fight and the book quotes Andrew Nairne, Visual Arts Director of the SAC as saying "Little Sparta should be sacrifices to the greater good of the arts in Scotland" which is astonishing now that Little Sparta is regarded by many as the major artistic venture in Soctland of the 2oth centrury.
Very good + condition and an interesting documentation of the end of the dispute as much as an artist's book.

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21 Nov

Posted at 19:22h in Artist's Books

Llandudno: Oriel Mostyn, 1996
28 x 22cm, 40pp plus boards, First edition of this artist's book with a commentary by Harry Gilonis published on the occasion of an exhibition in North Wales. One fold out page. A series of linocuts by Jo HIncks illustrate one line poems by Finlay all of which are marine scenes.

"A grey shore between day and night" is "dusk" with an image of a boat.

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14 Aug

Posted at 15:05h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1996)
8 x 7.5cm, 16pp plus printed card covers. Artist's book which prints four pages of four colours with the letters in a 5 x 5 lattice - GREEN, BROWN, BLACK, OCHRE followed by the same lattice with the word PATCH. Finally the whole is identified as "Jacob's Boat" on the last page. VG+.

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14 Aug

Posted at 09:29h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
8 x 10cm, 6pp outer folder with an image of a starfish content of 6 8 x 10cm double sided cards.
One initially thinks there has been a printing error as the back of the cards seems upside down but if read in sequence the first side tells the story of a kidnapping of three Naval Protection Officers after a raid on a French trawler - La Calypso - by its crew, with the officers only released after a return to France. Red in the other direction the story of Calypso saving the life of Ulysses and holding him for seven years in her cave.
Finlay always enjoyed a naming co-incidence and the two stories obviously parallel each other in many respects. Small vignettes by Laura Gerahty. VG+

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15 Jul

Posted at 18:11h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1996)
7.7 x 7.7cm, 8pp plus card covers. Artist's book with two drawings by Gary Hincks.

A text "Open the little hatch" is accompanied by a line drawing of a hatch in a toy boat - on a second double page spread the text is "Look in the little hold" and the drawing is of a nets inside the hold that can be seen now the hatch is open. Finlay enjoyed making model boats. VG+. ...

14 Jul

Posted at 09:39h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
11 x 10.5cm, 12pp with card covers and printed dust jacket. Three drawings by Hinks show a square of brown overlapped on the a slice of bread (Hovis Loaf), a brick (Hovis Brick) and a sail (Hovis Sail). Hovis is a brand name for cheap commercial brown bread in the UK - the brown square reminding one of a single slice. Bricks share a similar colour and one assumes so do sails.

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21 May

Posted at 16:35h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
9 x 9cm, 8pp plus card wrappers. Artist's book which shows abstracted images of sails with different colours and shapes of the reef ropes (the ties that allow sails to be pulled together to reduce the area hitting the wind. On the double pages here, the paper becomes the sail. These were also prints issued by Finlay and also an exhibition. VG+.

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13 Mar

Posted at 21:05h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
6.5 x 9cm, printed custom folder content of 10 6.5 x 9cm, 1pp black on deep blue cards. Each card has a epigram by Finlay on it:
"5. The sail and the keel practice dialectic."<BR< This sentence brings Hegelian dialectics into the consideration of a boat - the keel is at the bottom of the boat, the sail at the top, one keeps the baot upright, the other pushes it along. One without the other would have no effect - the synthesis of the two creates a journey.
All fine in like folder.

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13 Mar

Posted at 13:09h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.
11.7 x 9.2cm, 8pp plus card covers and printed dust jacket with a line drawing by Mark Stewart of the golden temple to Apollo found on the edge of Lock Eck. Internally Finlay has four couplets one per page:

the flock of stones
the text from Virgil

the stray shot
the frozen gulley

the blue bow-rope
the bust in plaster

the black Bren
the golden temple

The lines describe the temple and with the title REDOUBT compares the small building with a military base (appropriate for Apollo). VG+. ...

10 Mar

Posted at 09:47h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1996?) 11 x 8cm, 8pp plus card covers. Artist's book with two poems by Finlay that share a similar structure - that of a one-word poem:


On the left:

An Example of Closure

X



and



On the right:

An Example of Opening

X. "X" can stand for a kiss and is often appended at the end of messages, it can also be used in place of a name and therefore found at the beginning of letters. VG+. ...

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