21 May

Posted at 15:04h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
9 x 11.4cm, 8pp plus card wrappers and green printed dust jacket. Two colour photographs by Eva Maria Weinmayer of a tree house which is revealed in the second photograph to be a model and incomplete. The two texts are both from Wittgenstein. The first which shows the seemingly complete treehouse is
"7. What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence."
and the second with the image that reveals the "tree house" to be fake is
"7.01 What we cannot speak about we must construct."
This is reminiscent of Lawrence Weiner's dictum on conceptual art:

1. The artist may construct the piece.
2. The piece may be fabricated.
3. The piece need not be built.
Each being equal and consistent with the intent of the artist, the decision as to condition rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership.

But of course Wittgenstein is interested in truth to which his solution was to say the only possible truth to be known is tautological. Finlay seems to be suggesting that an alternative is to create a new truth.
The treehouse was made by "Kroder, Korner and Weinmayr. VG+.

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02 Apr

Posted at 18:58h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
11.6 x 7cm, 20pp plus card wrappers and printed dust jacket. Six drawings by Angela Lemaire are conjoined with Finlay's pithy proverbs.

"The wind is invisible/but we can see which way the trees blow"


This is one of 250 unsigned copies. VG+ but staples are rusty.

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21 Mar

Posted at 18:52h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
13.5 x 9.2cm, 4pp plus end papers and blue laid paper wrappers. The poem is as follows:

THE HAPPY CATASTROPHE
Be





falls.

and the explanation on the left "The happy catastrophe" - Friedrich Schlegel's characterisation of the French Revolution.
The word befalls is split as if part has dropped off or down but also is a physical reminder of a head falling from a body or the guillotine blade dropping down from above.
Slight former diagonal crease on cover but else VG.

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21 Dec

Posted at 19:00h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
10.5 x 7.2cm, 12pp plus wrappers and printed dust jacket. Four "proverbs" by Finlay are illustrated with drawings by Kathleen Lindsley.

"The poor fisherman counts his diamonds" for instance depends on the drawing to explain the diamonds is a metaphor for silver-backed fish.
Very good condition apart from some minor rust on staples. Murrsay has this as 1992 but the book has 1991.

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21 Dec

Posted at 08:45h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
21 x 15cm, 36pp with card covers and printed dust jacket. Image by Gary Hincks. The annual Christmas book publication by Finlay is here a collection illustrated short poems (most two-liners and most rhyming).

COUPLET
Doodlebug, doodlebug, where have you been?
- I've been to London to visit the Queen."
has a drawing of a V1 rocket bomb used during the blitz which was often called a "Doodlebug".

The staples are a little rusty else VG+.

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21 Nov

Posted at 14:59h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
10.6 x 16cm, 48pp plus card covers with printed dust jacket. Artist's book with four folded over pages that have one text on the outside that reveals the second text when opened.

Neoclassical Thaumaturgy
opens to
The gods fly faster than sound.

A monostich is a one line poem. VG+.

...

11 Jul

Posted at 14:24h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1991) 9.2 x 7.6cm, 8pp plus card covers. Artist's book which has two definitions inside of the word Scud:
firstly, to sweep along easily and swiftly,: to drive before the wind: to traverse swiftly

and

to spank.

Finlay seems to have the idea of a boat moving quickly but also being forced along by its crew. VG+. ...

02 Jul

Posted at 21:25h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991 10.0 x 6.8cm, 14pp plus wrappers and printed dust jacket. Artist's book with seven illustrations by Kathleen Lindsley and short proverb-like texts by Finlay, for example, "The wind roaring in the night is both stranger and friend." VG+ - although staples are a bit rusty. ...

21 Apr

Posted at 08:35h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
8.2 x 10cm, 8pp with printed blue card covers. Picturesque was a style of painting which stressed the pretty and the kitsch and here Finlay cites in sarcastic terms the view that:
"It is hardly necessary to remark how the view from the house would be enlivened by the smoke of a cottage - " which is a direct quote from Humphry Repton the 18th century gardener and proponent of the style.
Finlay conjoins on the page opposite "- or a Picasso portrait by the inclusion of a recognisable pipe." which forces a modernity onto Repton's rather passe vision. VG+

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09 Apr

Posted at 12:40h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press. 1991 10.0 x 10.4cm, 12pp plus card covers and pictorial blue dustjacket with an emblem by Kathleen Lindsley of a rosette. Internally there are four illustrations by Lindsey items used by the masses during the Terror of the French revolution eg a cart, a guillotine, along with definitions by Finlay:

Pike, n. a Jacobin Plinth

referring to heads being placed on the weapons to display them after execution.
Staples are a bit rusty else VG+.
...

15 Mar

Posted at 15:59h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991 30.8 x 12cm, 200 plus card covers and green printed dustjacket. Artist's book based on various Greek myths. Finlay supplies six small one line poems each with a single repeated illustration by Solveig Hill - such as:

APHRODITE

Oil, in the air's cool jar.

and

CHLORIS

The birds awake the dawn.

VG+. ...

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