Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1978)
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp. The painting on the front of a tank pushing through the undergrowth is entitled after Stalin's famous rhetorical question "How many divisions does the Pope have?" - only Finlay asks it of Arcady, the mythical rural utopia. This is one of a long number of momento mori by Finlay - the weapons of death have invaded Arcadia and soon all that my be left are ancient skulls.
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1979
19 x 9.3cm, 2pp. A plan for an architectural and garden installation based on the 1967 Finlay poem Cytheria is shown on the front. The various element of the poem are to be planted or inscribed in stone in the garden. Never realised this is one of the very first 'proposals' by Finlay but we have decided to catalogue it as an artist's postcard due to its format.
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1979
4.4 x 3.4cm, 4pp. Finlay's smallest folding card, this has a line drawing by Ivy Sky Rutzky on the front of a butterfly and inside a text:
A Red
Admiral
or
A.B.
Sadly we cannot identify who "A.B." is.The folding of the small card and its size however do reflect the shape and size of a butterfly's wings. VG+.
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
10.5 x 15cm, 1pp. A drawing of a tank in camouflage and in vegetation by John Borg Manduca is overprinted with a jokey "reply card text". The options are:
Thank you for your communication
You will be hearing from us shortly
You are not the only big shot around here
We are getting your range.
Humorous of course, but also a hint at Finlay's combative and defensive view of the world (although the major battles lay ahead in 1980) but by now he had already had a legal battle with Fulcrum Press (which was bankrupted over the issue) and had pulled his work from a Scottish Arts Council show in this same year when he felt insufficiently supported by them. VG+
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1978)
5.1 x 7.7cm, 1pp. A fake Erratum slip for the Arts Council of Great Britain where Finlay suggests in their publication - for "mind" read "void". A rather nasty little dig in revenge for what Finlay regarded as a slight when full ACGB support was not given to him in his various battles. VG+
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
15 x 10.5cm, 2pp. A list of the latin names of trees all of which share a U in their names are placed one above the other such that a descending line of the letter can be seen (printed in black to highlight it further). Above the text instructs the reader to "play: cover tall the letters except U, using the index finger of each hand."
The "U"s create the fictional flute representing holes - a clear reference to the classical Pan and his pipes. The rest of the card is printed in lime green - again a symbol of vegetation and nature.
this card has been later signed in green ink on the back "Ian Hamilton Finlay 15.4.83". VG+.
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
16.7 x 12.8cm, 2pp. Two drawings by Hincks of the Handley Page Heyford bomber (which was in service in the 1930s in the UK) and an English Hay-Barge are placed one above each other to create an equivalence. As well as the names being similar there are aspects of both which share a shape - the bomber is very long and has a flat base, and barges by definition tend to have flat bottoms to allow access in shallower rivers. Hincks drawings also use hatching on the hay piled up on the deck, the sails of the boat and fuselage of the plane to again emphasis similarities (and the landscape seen below the plane is also undulating much like the sea under the barge.
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
15.8 x 3.9cm, 2pp. Black on green card with 5 small uncredited drawings by Gary Hincks the first four boats being above the word Leaf and the last ship above Bark. The card obviously references the structure of a tree but the first four "leaves" are smaller boats and the last one a Barque (aka Bark). Arguably like other bookmarks this could be placed as an object multiple but we have decided to keep it in this section because of previous classifications as a card by Murray and other catalogue raisonnes. VG+.
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
14.8 x 12.2cm, 2pp. Black on cream card with six drawings by Gary Hincks of patterns which may be camouflage or just abstract drawings from leaves and vegetation.
The card is subtitled HOMAGE TO WILLIAM EMPSON who was a majorly influential critic and theorist in poetry circles of the 1930s. His book "Seven Types of Ambiguity" argued that if a word in a poem could have more than one meaning then that poem could also be read in more than one manner.
There are seven drawings here (the last two are half of the size of the others) and all could be regarded as 'ambiguous' (as one might argue all camouflage is) hence this is in some manner a visual analogue of the theories of the critic.
VG+.
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
9.6 x 14cm, 2pp. Black on white card with a photograph of a German tank in what appears to be a snowy Russia. A soldier lies slumped over the turret, dead.
Another of Finlay's momento mori works - the title directly references the famous painting "ET IN ARCADIA EGO" but the text is in German. A sub heading by Finlay on the back of the card adds: "Things were even worse than this in Arcady...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
9.6 x 13.8cm, 2pp. Black on white card with an entirely typographic design on the front -
10. Counter Argument: yes it can.
On the reverse Finlay notes a report: "A project for the Expansion of the Administrative Centre of Lower Austria in Vienna." by Hans Buchwald, Wolfgang Felix Knoll and Jurgen Brenner. Stuttgart 1977." Obviously the text on the front comes from or relates to that report but we cannot find any reference to the contents or context. For now this car will remain a mystery other than being somewhat a dogmatic way of winning an argument..
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
9.6 x 13.8cm, 2pp. Black on white card with a quotation from "A Handbook of Sailing Barges" which states that:
PERSEVERE, stripped of her gear and relying on power alone."
The sentence refers to a boat being unable to move mechanically - but also the alternative meaning that perseverance is relying on oneself.
...