20 Sep

Posted at 17:15h in Artist's Books

Firenze: Exempla/Exit Lugo 1985
8.9 x 31.7cm, 28pp (printed recto only) and printed white wrappers with printed dustjacket.
Artist's book with 8 colour typographic works by Finlay and Ron Costley. The texts are word combinations such as SEAPINK or STRAWBERRYCAMOUFLAGE- which have multiple meanings in part because of the lack of any spaces between the words. The works reproduced here were all released as much larger edition prints by the Wild Hawthorn Press but this book was an edition with Maurizio Nannuci in Italy himself a well known concrete and experimental poet (and artist). This is one of the deluxe copies - 150 signed and numbered by Finlay by hand in greem ink. VG+.

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18 Mar

Posted at 10:32h in Artist's Books

London: Barbarian Press, 1985
32 x 21cm, 12pp (rough edged paper) plus card covers and printed dustjacket. Letterpress printed. Artist;s book which has 80 epigrams and aphorisms by Finlay on a wide range of issues. There are four on concrete poetry, for instance,:

The Muse of concrete poetry reverse Mnemosyne's gift: depriving the poet of song, she gave him sweet eyesight.

Concrete poetry was less a visual than a silent poetry.

The conrete poets regarded language itself as rhetorical.

COncrete poems were thought childish because they were seen but not heard."

This is a charming and musing book with no central theme so can be dipped into at random. It was one of only 150 numbered copies. VG+.
Strangely Murray has this book twice in his catalogue raisonne - once in 1981 (which is erroneous) and again in 1985 - which is correct.

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15 Dec

Posted at 17:01h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
14 x 9.7cm, 48pp (printed recto only) and printed white wrappers.
Artist's book with 16 quotations from Hagel paired with other classical and modern quotations from Hereclitus, Wittgenstein, Zeno, Coleridge, Pythagorus and Finlay himself. The conjoining of the tests brings new meaning to the Hegelian bon mots. This was a Christmas publication from the Press which was often sent out as gifts to friends and colleagues - this copy has a handwritten dedication "Stuart from Ian as always". VG+.

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18 Mar

Posted at 19:12h in Artist's Books

Southampton: Southampton Art Gallery, 1984
21 x 14.8cm, 48pp plus printed wrappers with tipped on reproduced drawing. Offically an exhibition catalogue for a touring show and also a single number of the poetry and literature review New Arcadians - here dedicated to Finlay who wrote the text. The catalogue is illustrated throughout by Andrew Griffiths. The works all relate to the Little Sparta War as well as proposed artworks that are grounded in the Nazi iconography (as Finlay points out elsewhere these works do not support fascism - the symbolism of the Third Reich is powerful and can be detourned for good reasons by artists).
This is really an artist's book by Finlay and we are cataloguing it as such. One of 1000 hand-numbered copies. . VG+.

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17 Jun

Posted at 20:33h in Artist's Books

Belper: Aggie Weston's, 1983
25 x 20cm, 16pp plus card covers. Single number of Stuart Mill's publication which is in fact a Finlay artist's book with drawings by Rod Gathercole. Each page has a different abstract drawing of undergrowth and epigrams below - such as:
Camouflage proverb: If the bush fits, wear it. VG+

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20 May

Posted at 16:52h in Artist's Books

Edinburgh: Graeme Murray Gallery, 1983
20.2 x 12.7cm, 96pp and white wrappers and printed cream dust jacket
Artist's book with images of 20 small table top sculptures by Finlay along with quotations that explain the works. VG+.

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20 Feb

Posted at 15:13h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre/Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, (1983)
7.8 x 8.2cm outer folder content of eight 7.8 x 8.2cmm 1pp cards. Each of seven cards (the eighth is a colophon) suggests single word changes to lines from Ovid's Metamorphoses to alter the meaning of the line and a drawing by Gary Hincks. As often Finlay enjoys the effects of minimal changes to cause maximum effect. Arguably a colleciton of artist's postcards but the cards could not stand alone so we agree this is categorised as an artist's book. VG+

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20 May

Posted at 16:32h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, (1982)
11.4 x 10.4cm,12pp and printed wrappers.
Artist's book with two quotations from Cholmeley and Burnet from Greek texts - the first is "a line of green among the trees" from Theocritis which Finlay claims is "Land Art in Theocritis" and the second from Empedokles referencing the idylls of Aphrodite as "A Fete Galante in Empedokles". The cover of the book is a b/w reproduction of an unidentified Watteau painting (who painted The Departure to Cytheria). The book ends with a quotation from Sol Lewitt: "One usually understands the art of the past by applying the conventions of the present - this mis-understanding the art of the past." Finlay had created many "homage" works where he celebrated the essence of many artists - this is the reverse, the modern celebrating the past but by deliberate misunderstanding. VG+>

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06 Apr

Posted at 10:29h in Artist's Books

Alsbach: Verlaggalerie Leaman, 1982
11.5 x 11.2cm, 20pp plus oversize wrappers. Artist's book containing five drawings by Gary Hincks and poems by Finlay.

IMPROVISATIONS

leaf-boat
cottonreel-tank

cottonreel-boat
leaf-tank

which is illustrated with drawings of bobbins used in toy model making.
One of 500 copies. VG+.

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20 Mar

Posted at 16:15h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, (1982)
13 x 25.2cm, 8pp plus card wrappers and printed white dust jacket.
Artist's book with two drawings of the Japanese planes trying to return to their aircraft carrier which is on fire as a result most had to crash into the seas and the pilots drown. The quotation is "The last honey by the water that no hive can find." from Austin Clarke's The Cattledrive in Connaught" 1925. The Clarke quotation has its flaws - it is the bee that seeks the pollen not the hive so the line is rather reversed but Finlay ignores that (as he does in other publications such as the Black Sparrow Press, publication also of 1982 called "Honey by the water." VG+.

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06 Mar

Posted at 16:07h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, (1982)
9.9 x 11.1cm, 28pp plus card wrappers and printed white dust jacket.
Artist's book with three sections - the first shows a unit (a dot), a line (two dots) and a plane (three dots). The second is Unit, line panzer (altering the dots into representing military units) and then, finally, unit, line, plane (the last page has two crosses and a dot instead of three dots. The simplest of changes creates significant differences in meaning. VG+

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27 Feb

Posted at 15:58h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre, : Wild Hawthorn Press, (1982)
7.5 x 9.5cm, 12pp plus card wrappers and printed white dust jacket.
Artist's book with a drawing of a circle, a classical column and a cube by Ian Gardner. The text is "Volume makes beauty/ and the most beautiful forms" with the latter on the page with the drawings "are the sphere, the cylinder, the cube." a quote from Vitulio from the 12th century. (One is reminded of Paul Cezanne's similar statement).
Finlay has replaced the cylinder with a classical column - changing Vitulio's statement into a promotion of neo-classicism. VG+

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