NYC: Nolan/Eckman Gallery, 2000
19 x 124cm, 52pp plus covers and pictorial dust jacket. An exhibition catalogue of mostly stone sculptures with Greek /classical themes although one sculpture is from the French revolution inspired works. 26 b/w full sheet images of works and short texts. VG+.
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Basel: STAMPA, 2000
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp announcement card with a Finlay tow boat on water "Im dunkeln Laub die Gold-Orangen glubn" on the front, verso gallery details,. A mailed and addressed example but still VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
Original mailing box content of a 2 x 4 x 1cm, pewter faux "net marker" with the inscription "SP" and a 12 x 16cm, 4pp printed card. A Christmas gift (here to the art dealers and curators M+R Fricke, Dusseldorf). Net markers, traditionally made of wood or cork, were used to establish ownership of nets in fishing communities and in ports usually carved with the fisherman's initials (sometimes a monogram) or later, as boats and their crews grew larger, with the fishing numbers of the fisherman's boat.
The card has a drawing on it (by Gary Hincks) of five net markers with A, JS, JN, SP, A on them - these represent the first five of Jesus's disciples and there is a biblical quote - from Matthew 4: 'As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother,...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
14.2 x 9cm, 16pp, plus oversize white card covers and floral decorated dust jacket with tipped on title label. Content of six "exchange" poems - three by Thomas A. Clark and three by Finlay where the structure is of a two line poetic phrase where the swapping of the adjectives or a noun alters the meaning in subtle manners. This:
the centuries of the oak/the sermon in the stone
becomes
the centuries of the stone/the sermon in the oak
Each is illustrated by a small painting by Laurie Clark. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1999) 10 x 9.5cm, 4pp. Artist's postcard with an appropriated text about model making and the comparison as to how real navies staff their ships seeing the soldiers and sailors as "little men". The title "Thought for the Day" references a daily BBC4 section of the early morning news where religious figures are invited to give a short homily to the audience (who usually wait it out until the useful part of the show returns). VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
7 x 8.5cm, 12pp plus printed card covers. Artist's book which is printed in green in one direction (Orchard) and once turned around is orange in the other (Larder). The words in both directions are APPLE, PEAR, CHERRY, PLUM, TREE and APPLE, PEAR, CHERRY, PLUM, JAM. The former is denoted as the "Inauguration of the orchard, Little Sparta, Autumn 1999" and the latter "Replenishment of the larder, Little Sparta, Autumn 1999". A small delight. VG+.
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Lubeck: Overbeck-Gesellschaft, 1991
21 x 10cm, 2pp announcement card with a reproduction of VENTOSE from 19991 on the front. Verso gallery details. VG+.
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Eindhoven: October Foundation, n.d. (1999)
15 x 10.5cm, 2PP. Announcement card for the limited lithographic print by Ian Hamilton Finlay and Cornelia Wieg. Image of the work in colour on front. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
15 x 10.7cm, 2pp, black on white card with a text:
l'invitation
de ce grand
espace blanc
Beken of Cowes was a photographer who specialised in marine photograph in the Solent and around the Isle of Wight. The "invitation to a large white space" is from a letter by Stephan Mallarme - one of the most important of concrete poets who used space to make meaning in his works. The comparison between the poet's work and the photography of seascapes is at the heart of this work. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
11.5 x 8.6cm, 8pp, plus card covers and printed blue dust jacket. Three appropriated drawings of named boats by Gloria WIlson from as book published by Fishing News are printed below their names and a short paragraph describing the,. The names together read "PROSPERITY/LEAD US 11/AND GALILEE" which Finlay relates to both the life of Jesus and the Romantic poet Christina Rossetti who wrote many devotional texts.
The title "A WILD HAWTHORN RE-READER" alludes to the appropriation of another's work and a re-interpretation of it.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
6.3 x 6.3cm, 4pp, printed black on blue. A drawing of an American warplane is joined by Finlay's poem internally:
Model
Port aileron down,
Starboard aileron up,
Slight left rudder -
Now it should fly straight!
Finlay describes a way in which an actual plane might guide itself through the air but at the end of the poem one realises the description is really the last alteration of the parts of the model he has just built. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999 17.7 x 14.7cm, 20pp plus boards with tipped on title label. Internally there are four b/w photographs of stone walls and a wooden wall in close up - each with a name of a type of boat below. The boat name shows an association with the construction of each wall. VG+. ...