Cambridge: Kettle"s Yard Gallery. 1977
21 x 13.2cm, 30pp plus card covers and printed typographic dust jacket. Design and typography by Ron Costley and essays by Stephen Bann, Douglas Hall, Miles Orvell and Stephen Scobie with a poem "Stonypath" by Kathleen Raine. An exhibition catalogue for a show of works which were "collaborations" with other artists (which is almost all of Finlay;'s works). VG+.
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Bologna: Galleria comunale d'art moderna di Bologna, 1977
20 x 20cm, 16pp plus wrappers. Exhibition catalogue for a worldwide survey visual poetry show with works from Anceschi, Andrafe, Boso, Caraballo, Herman, Ogaz, Oswald Weiner, Zabala, Viola, Setsuko and others as well as Finlay collaborating with Maxwell Allan alongside Bob Cobbing, John Furnival, Lillane Lyn, David Mayor and Alan Ridell from Britain. Curated by Giuliano Della Casa and Alessandro Serra. Finlay's work is not illustrated not mentioned in the catalogue essay by Adriano Spatola.
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Bologna: Galleria comunale d'art moderna di Bologna, 1977
20 x 20cm, 1pp typographic announcement leaflet with Finlay being the only British artist mentioned in the leaflet. VG+.
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Edinburgh: Scottish Arts Council, 1976
15 x 10.6.cm, 48pp plus pictorial wrappers and bound in errata slip. Exhibition catalogue for a group show at the SAC which not only included Finlay but also Eileen Lawrence, Will Maclean, Glen Onwin, Fred Stiven and Ainslie Yule, the whole curated by Paul Overy of "landscape" inspired art. The cover has a Finlay small work on the front (Landscape/Interior) and 16 works are listed internally as well as two others in b/w ('Homage to Kandinsky' and 'Emden Relief' (a sculpture of a cruiser at Stoneypath). The errata slip has two mistakes of names of Finlay works on it which no doubt irritated the poet. Looking at the catalogue is is clear Finlay is by far the most significant of the artists showing.
This was a show at a time when Finlay and the SAC were willing to work together - later the poet withdrew works from a planned SAC exhibition in 1977 because he felt the organisaiton insufficiently supported him in various disputes he was becoming embroiled in. Some nascent foxing to wrappers and end papers else §VG+. Scarce....
London: Serpentine Gallery, 1977
19 x 14cm, 56pp plus 16ppp b/w plates. Original wrappers . An exhibition catalogue with a long essay by Stephan Bann illustrated throughout. One of the first long essays on Finlay by his long term friend and collaborator Bann. VG+.
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Nottingham: The Tarasque Press, 1972
22.5 x 20cm, 28pp plus pictorial wrappers. Exhibition catalogue of show of concrete poetry works edited by Stephen Bann. Contributions by Simon Cutts, Ian Gardner, Stuart Mills and Finlay who has three pages of b/w photographs (4 images) taken by Stuart Mills. Slight grubbiness along outer spine else VG. Scarce Catalogue.
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Edinburgh: Richard Demarco Gallery/Coelfrith Press, 1972 30.7 x 25cm, printed envelope content of four stapled short essays all mimeographed and an original collage by Robin Crozier (which is signed and numbered) and five offset lithgraphic prints by Fred Brookes, John Dee, Roger Palmer, John Roberts and Colin Rose as well as the inclusion of RING by Finlay and Costley which is also known as Ceolfrith Press handout Nr 4 (which was also released independently of this publication). This was the catalogue publication for the exhibition "Coelfrith Artists of the North East" which was put on in Demarco's gallery in Edinburgh. Only 300 copies of this publication were released - but it is very rare to find it complete. The outer envelope is a little browned at the bottom and with mild wear but internally all elements are present and in VG+ condition. ...
Edinburgh: Richard Demarco Gallery, 1971
25 x 15cm, 6pp (single sheet printed one side only in turquoise and black). Demarco's monthly programme of events which lists an Ian Hamilton Finlay exhibition of Neon Poems and Net-Floats: the publication doubled as an exhibition catalogue. One b/w image of Finlay (obscured by sails) boating on Lock Echan. VG+ Scarce.
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Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, 1971
27.5 x 21cm, 230pp, original card wrappers with typographic dust jacker. Exhibition Catalogue for a major show of sound texts, concrete poetry and vidsual texts which displayed work from over 100 artists from all over the world. Those artists included Augusto de Campos, Carlo Belloli, Claus Bremer, Decio Pignatari, Diter Rot, Daniel Spoerri, Andre Thomkins, Max Bense, Ferdinand Kriwet, Henri Chopin, Heinz Gappmayr, Oyvind Fahlstrom, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Mathias Goeritz, Eugen Gomringer, Hansjorg Mayer, Timm Ulrichs, Hiro Kamimura, K. Katue, Kawashima, Emmett Williams. Essay texts in Dutch, English and German language. The catalogue is organised by country of origin so Finlay has a page of works (Homage to Malevich and Au Pair) alongside those of Furnival, Cobbing, Morgan, dsh and others.
The cheap paper is minorly browned after 50 years and there are minor closed tears to the dust jacket but overall VG+. A rare publication.
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Sunderland: Ceolfrith Press, 1970
Printed three part folder - 24.8 x 20.5cm content of 18 separate inserts consisting of essays, photographs, cards and publications. Photographs by Dianne Tammes.
Alongside a 1pp sheet of catalogue contents printed green on cream stock, the portfolio contains:
'Sailing Drifters' - envelope containing single sheet of quotations printed red and black letterpress on cream stock, folded twice inwards / folded bibliography for the poet, printed brown on cream stock
Wild Hawthorn Press bibliography, with an introduction by Douglas Eadie printed dark blue on brown stock, folded once
An essay by Simon Cutts, 2pp sheet, printed black on blue on both sides
'IAN HAMILTON FINLAY: Engineer and Bricoleur' by Stephen Bann - a 23 x 18.9 mm, stapled booklet with b/w illustrated covers reproducing a photograph of the stone poem 'Rose Bench', containing 7 page essay on Finlay's work
illustrations to Bann's essay and contained in separate printed envelope include: 'The Little Seamstress' colour facsimile printed brown and blue on cream stock
'Skylarks' - small folded b&w poem card in envelope
a b/w photograph of 'Pond Excerpt'
two b/w photographs of 'Model Boats'
a 21.5 x 16.5cm b/w photograph of the poet flying one of his model gliders
a 22 x 14cm, b&w photograph of a work 'Frogbit'
a 20.1 x 16.2cm, b/w photograph of a work 'KY'
a 21.9 x 17.3 b/w photograph of 'Water Weathercock'
A booklet, folded twice, printed silver on black stock of the exhibition items.
This is a very hard to find and important exhibition catalogue with extensive documentation of early Finlay activities. One of only 25 signed and numbered copies within the larger edition of 350 copies. Very good condition. Murray has this as 3.36.
We also own the original paste up/maquette/photgraphs for this publication - see listing in "unique works".
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Sunderland: Ceolfrith Bookshop Gallery, 1970
35 x 28cm, plastic bag with printed card header/closure content of 4 sections of commentary (by Stuart Mills) and 9 poem cards including dsh's GROVE SINGS RIVER A SONG which is a folding sheet designed to stand on a mirrored glass in such a way that the hand-drawn text 'glove sings' is read in its reflection as 'I love sings': the work is dedicated to Ian Hamilton Finlay by dsh.
Finlay's contribution to the publication is smaller in that Homage to Malevich (lackblockblackb version) is reproduced in the essay Concrete Poetry by Stuart Mills and the book Canal Game, the prints Star/Steer and Acrobats, the work Au Pair and three cards from Rapel were exhibited in the show.
Some rust to the staples and minor wear to plastic bag and header but else this is a very hard to find item and the first of the Ceolfrith publications.
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N.p. (Dunfermline): Carnegie Festival of Music and the Arts, 1969
20.5 x 106.cm, 12pp exhibition catalogue for an early show as party of the Dunfermline festival. Mimeograph. There are lists of the 16 works displayed and interesting short notes (by Finlay?) which are insightful for later themes in the poet's work. VG+. Very rare.
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Munster: Anthologie zur Visuellen Poesie, n.d. (1968)
19,5 x 219cm, unpaginated ( c. 80pp plus card covers. Exhibition catalogue for an important early survey of concrete and visual poetry in Germany., Works shown by almost all the major figures in the movement. Finlay has two works - Village (where the v is inverted to create a hut) and Star Steer, Rare. VG+.
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