15 Dec

Posted at 21:11h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
7.5 x 7.5cm, 32pp and card covers and printed dust jacket. Artist's book with 9 illustrations by Gary Hincks and three line poems by Finlay.
The texts all relate to winter in the countryside and could be read as a single work but really each stands alone.

foot
following
foot

is shown next to a painting of footprints in the snow.
the staples are rusty but this is a scarce item - only 250 copies were printed as Christmas gifts, else VG+. This example is signed by Finlay on the first blank paper in ink.

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21 Jul

Posted at 08:04h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
9.8 x 9.3cm, 16pp and card wrappers and printed light green dust jacket. Drawings by Kathleen Lindsley of various baskets containing bread, wheat leaves and finally, heads are denoted as DOMESTIC, PASTORAL, PARNASSIAN and SUBLIME. Again Finlay sees the extremes of the Terror as somehow pure and homely even if evil.
Staples are a bit rusted else VG+. ...

21 Jul

Posted at 07:52h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
21.2 x 3.6cm, 4pp and blue card wrappers. Internally there is a text by Finlay merging Saint-Just and Rimbaud.

"Whoever desecrates sepulchres is banished."

A poem about respecting tradition and by extension classicism. VG+

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09 Jul

Posted at 21:09h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1990) 13 x 8.8cm, 8pp plus card covers. Artist's book with two poems based on originals by Symons and Goethe:

Murmur
of many
waters

Rustle
of redbrown
reeds
(After Symons)

and

The trees
are all
so still

A little
breeze
springs up

(After Goethe).

Finlay often alters short works or selections by other poets or authors. The changes brings a new meaning to the translations - often modernising. VG+. ...

21 Jun

Posted at 07:46h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
14 x 12.4cm, 4pp and printed card wrappers. Internally are two poems by Finlay.

TOMBSTONE
Sundial
without
a gnomon

opposite to

MARBLE
Parachute
of
the gods.

Both images are of stones. The tombstone is a reminder of the passing of time even without the gnomon. The beauty of marble has landed from the heavens above.

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19 May

Posted at 10:49h in Artist's Books

Nevers: Centre d'art contemporain, 1990
15 x 10.5cm, Two bound in printed 6pp single sheets in outer 8pp wrappers. Ostensibly an exhibition catalogue but in fact a joint artist's book with Cutts. The two sections of the inner fold outs have on the left a text "a line of thin pale blue" and the sheet is bound in by a blue thread. This is claimed to be a "translation of a line by Mallame (a poet who can lay claim to have published the first ever concrete poem). On the right section there is a text: "a line of thin pale red" and the sheet is bound in by a blue thread. This is a "translation of a line by Chenier." André Marie Chénier was a poet who lost his life on the guillotine only three days before the overthrown of Robespierre.
The first is a line referring to the horizon, the second to the line of blood from the throats of the murdered - opponents of the Terror sometime wore thin red threads around their body to indicate their mourning for the dead.
A lovely artist's book - the theme (red thread) of which Finlay used in sculptures such as Aphrodite of the Terror from 1987.
Explanatory texts in English and French. . VG+.

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21 Apr

Posted at 07:36h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
14 x 12.4cm, 4pp and printed card wrappers. The cover drawing of a boat is by Gary Hincks, internally are two poems by Finlay.

3 Sailboats
Juan Gris
Jean Cocteau
Erik Satie

opposite to

3 Sansculottes
Puvis de Chavannes
Camille Pissarro
Jean_Baptiste Corot

Finlay is associating the the thematic interests of the latter three painters (the lives of the poor and oppressed) against the bourgeois interests of Gris, Cocteau and Satie. The sansculottes being the working class mob in Paris during the revolution who could by sheer numbers overthrow the various attempts at moderate government and led eventually to the rise of Robespierre and the Terror. VG+.

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21 Feb

Posted at 07:34h in Artist's Books

Edinburgh: Graeme Murray Gallery, 1990
24.5 x 24.5cm, 56pp plus card covers and printed dust jacket with tipped on illustration. A series of drawings by Ron Costley after instructions from Finlay which reinterpret modern weaponry as classical memes. A camouflaged tank is denoted as "GROVE:.
The second part of the book has various relief sculptures which are the same as the drawings in a different medium - a warplane has the word ECHO beside it - the radar being equated to the nymph who was cursed only to speak in echos. The sculptures are by John Andrew. VG+.
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02 Jan

Posted at 16:29h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: WIld Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1990) 8.7 x 14.4cm, 12pp plus wrappers and printed dustjacket. Artist's book where two sentences by Heidegger have been added to by Finlay with a final sentence.

"In the wood are paths which mostly wind along until they end quite suddenly in an impenetrable thicket".
"They are called woodpaths"
and "They are paths where the heart and the foot walk hand in hand."

The drawing is by Solveig Hill. This is one of only 250 examples. Fine condition....

15 Dec

Posted at 07:12h in Artist's Books

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

"Temper harshness with tolerance, tolerance with justice"

when applied to the Jacobins (the most severe of the French revolutionary political clubs named after the religious order where they initially met) this can be seen as a plea for moderation. Another proverb reads:

"If you want to avoid the worst of the mud, walk in the ruts."

which also alludes to the moral state of the revolutionary club.
This is one of 250 signed copies which is dedicated to "Ian , with love from Ian" in red ink. VG+.

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21 Aug

Posted at 06:52h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
22 x 17.5cm, 20pp plus card wrappers and printed dust jacket. texts by Finlay are reproduced in English and French in a typographic only design. Later these works were reprinted as large posters and exhibited at the 369 Gallery in Edinburgh.

THE BLADE STAINED WITH BLOOD IS NO MORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION THAND THE ALTAR STAINED WITH BLOOD IS GREECE AND ROME.

and

WE WILL VIEW THE FRENCH REVOLUTION MORE SYMPATHETICALLY IF WE SEE THAT THE FACTIONS REGARDS THEMSELVES AS SOVEREIGN NATIONALS IN A STATE OF WAR.

Finlay both admires the unerring purpose of the Terrorists / revolutionary and sees both the purity and the rot within at the same time. The French translations were by Yves Abrioux. VG+.

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20 Jun

Posted at 23:11h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
15.3 x 10.6cm, 16pp plus card wrappers and red dust jacket. Four poetic works all relating to the French revolution. The first is

July 28, 1794
Refreshment for the wild flowers
which is a direct reference to the deaths of the members of the Committee of Public Safety who were the effective dictators of the Terror. The wild flowers being fed blood and bodies.

A Riddle
To those who watch, a waterfall; to its victim, a glacier.
The truth of the relativity of the observer when facing the guillotine.

One of only 250 copies. VG+.

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