Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 2001
180 x 35cm., 100% lamb's wool scarf with embroidered text. One corner of the blanket is stitched in such a way that one corner is permanently folded back. The title "ART IS A SMALL ADJUSTMENT" hints at the minimalism of the work. A Xmas gift from Finlay to friends - there were two colour variations in the wool colour - dark blue and light brown - this is one of the latter. VG.
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Belper: Aggie Weston's Editions, 2004
19.4 x 13cm, 68pp plus boards and dustjacket. Place ribbon. One of the last books published in Finlay's life time which was based on collected aphorisms and one line poems taken from notebooks (blue jotters) in which he wrote down ideas and single lines. Edited by his friend and long time collaborators Stuart Mills and Colin Sackett. One of 500 copies printed. VG+.
JOINT WITH:
15 x 10.5cm, 1pp, compliments slip from the Aggie Weston press which has a lengthy handwritten note from Mills to Paul Robertson which talks about the enthusiasm for the book and how well it was received by the likes of the Tate Gallery. In original torn posted envelope.
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Glasgow: The Herald, 2001
60 x 39.8cm, 12pp (self cover) - a broadside newspaper article on a new anthology of concrete poetry in the Weekend Supplement by Barry Gordon. with a large colour image of the older Finlay who the journalist picked out because of his Scottish roots.
The picture shows Finlay in a Rangers training top - which as someone with a lifelong hatred of the bigotry of Rangers and Celtic was a disappointment but years later Eck Finlay told me his father had just grabbed it rushing out for the photograph and was embarrassed it was in the shot. Maybes aye, maybes nah. VG+.
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Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1981
30 x 21cm, 1pp vintage fax copy of an invoice for various publications. A bit tatty.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 2001
9.4 x 12cm folded, 4pp artist's postcard with a drawing by Gary Hincks after a work by Walter Langley on the front and a poem by Finlay internally:
BOY IN A FIELD
He sprawls
on the grass
a boat
in his hand,
his big flung-down
felt hat
another.
VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 2001
12.6 x 2.7cm, 4pp, black on orange card with internally four Finlay poems each considering aspects of a fishing village and community - such as:
CHANGE OF USE
rain-filled
September boats
becoming ponds
VG+
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Basel: STAMPA, 2001
21 x 10.5cm, 2pp. Announcement card for a Finlay solo show which has a photograph of a work CHORE, n. a small humdrum task: a prosaic task; a refuge which is carved on the handle of a broom.
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Langenbruck: Sculpture at Schoenthal Monestery, 2001
14.4 x 21cm, 4pp announcement card with a b/w image of Little Sparta on the front taken by Jennifer Gough-Cooper. A photographic exhibition showing paths from Finlay's gardens and other grounds. Inside gallery details. VG+.
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London: Redfern Gallery, 2001
20,.4 x 21cm, 24pp plus card wrappers. Exhibition catalogue displaying Boulton's watercolours of two gardens - one being the Villa La Pietra in Florence and the other being Little Sparta. Colour images throughout. VG+.
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Edinburgh: Sick Kids Hospital, 2001
30 x 21cm, 32pp plus covers. The secret auction catalogue to raise funds for the hospital - the works were unlabelled but most were easily identified. The Robin Gillanders print from Little Sparta of the Wheelbarrow sculpture that is in this collection was purchased from this auction (as was a photograph of John Byrne). VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 2001
10.8 x 7.5cm, 16pp plus card covers and russet red/brown dust jacket with printed boat. Artist's book with six visual poems/amusing short texts by Finlay and drawings of barges by Gary Hincks.
Such as:
HOPELESS
Like looking for
a needle in
a stackie.
A stackie is a slang name for a working barge that usually carried cargo stacked up on its deck. Finlay has perverted for a joke the well known saying "Looking for a needle in a haystack." VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 2000
15.2 x 21.4cm, 48pp plus red patterned boards. Artist's book with eighteen b/w photographs by Robin Gillanders ofone of the small sections of Little Spartas which Finaly denoted as Huff Lane - in part a joke about being somewhere to go and sit when feeling aggrieved ("In the huff" as Scots say.
Along the lane are five low benches inscribed with epigrams such as:
"A lane cannot be measured in metres"
This line may be related to another bench:
"In a lane one will not encounter Apollo but one may come upon Pan."
The former is a punny musical reference (Pan after all plays the pipes) and a lane is usually shadowed from the sun but also it has music from nature:
"A song of a skylark may return us to Shelley, a lane may lead us back to Clare."
Both Shelley and Clare are romantic poets.
GIllander's photographs are also of flowers found during the (very) short walk.
One of 300 such books published for Christmas 2000. VG+. Finlay gives Pia Simig a credit for being part of the conceptual idea.
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