Ian Hamilton Finlay - Unoriginal Sins

25 Oct POLAR. 1964.

Posted at 21:42h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
55 x 43cm, blue and light blue on white silkscreen. This visual poem by Furnival is an image of the Great Bear (Ursa Major) made up of the words BEAR, OURS, NU. Much like in the night sky the shape points to the POLE Star but here it is designated POLAR - hence creating a polar bear.
This was the tenth ever print created by the Wild Hawthorn Press and is very rare.
There are pin pricks in the corners of the print where it has been placed on a wall (possibly during poetry readings and then recovered as Finlay often did in the early years. Murray 1.10.
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23 Oct POEM/PRINT. 1964. THE NINTH PUBLICATION OF THE PRESS.

Posted at 23:19h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
55 x 43cm, red and black silkscreen. Concrete poem typical of Kriwet's style of overlapping text to make larger patterned images. One of 300 such prints made. This was the ninth publication of the press (if one does not take in account the early POTHs). VG condition. Murray has this as 1.9.

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23 Sep PARADIS. 1964. THE EIGHTH PUBLICATION OF THE PRESS.

Posted at 23:14h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
43 x 55cm, green and blue silkscreen. Concrete poem published by Finlay's Press from the turn of the century experimental poet. Paradis is a sign post of sorts placing an idyllic, mythical place 1.5 km between "here" and "there". This was the eighth publication of the press. Albert-Birot died only 3 years after this publication. VG condition.

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21 Sep THE BUILDER. 1964. VERY EARLY ESSAY ON FINLAY & CONTRIBUTIONS.

Posted at 22:21h in Monographs & Essays

London: The Builder, n.d. (1964)
17.5 x 21cm, 52pp. Oversize printed orange wrappers. A single number of this remarkably on point small journal which has here essays on dsh, John Furnival, Henri Chopin, David Hockney (all with illustrations) and Ian Hamilton Finlay who has contributed two works in b/w and there is an uncredited portrait drawing of the poet. One article of note is dsh's translation of Garnier's 'Spacialist Manifesto' which Chopin responds to.
Sadly the inner text block has come away from the wrappers but this is a rare and very early item.

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23 Aug EPITAPH FUR KONRAD BAYER. 1964. THE SEVENTH PUBLICATION OF THE PRESS.

Posted at 23:04h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
58 x 43cm, orange and blue silkscreen. Concrete poem - one of the earliest publications of the press. The print is a number of letters N, O and T placed in such a way that different combinations create small words. NON, NOT, TOT - which have negative overtones in English and German. The larger shape of all the letters looks like an X - another negation.
Bayer was an Austrian writer and poet who was a member of the Wiener Gruppe. Franz Mon was also an experimental poet and like Bayer was also influenced by Dada.
Very good condition - this was the seventh publication (ignoring the POTHs) released by Finlay's press. VG condition.

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29 Jul UNTITLED. 1964?

Posted at 10:22h in Page Works & Contributions

N.p.: n.p., n.d. (1964?) Two stapled sheets - one 20.5 x 20.5cm, the other 25 x 20.5cm both black on yellow. An untitled broadside. The first has a work by dsh - Sonic Water - and the other works by ee cummings, Edwin Morgan, dsh, Ernst Jandl, Eugen Gomringer and Summer Vocabulary lesson by Finlay. The latter is a very early experimental poem:

1. Is the tea infished?
2. It is infished.
3. Suffishiently?
4. Suffishiently.
___________________
1. is it pouring? 2. It is pouring.
3. the rain is pouring.
4. May I pour?

The poem in two parts firstly discusses the tea pot and whether it was full but with a punny reference to fish, the second compares the pouring of the tea to rain.

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18 Jul TELEGRAMS FROM MY WINDMILL. 1964

Posted at 14:43h in Artist's Books

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
12 x 18.7cm, 36pp. Original wrappers and cream dustjacket with a design based on an old fashioned post office telegram. An artist's book of concrete poems (printed red on white) which are facsimile of typewriter designs by Finlay. One is reminded of Guillaume Apollinaire's calligrammes where Finlay has used the shape of the typed words to give additional meaning.

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23 Jun FLEECE. 1964. THE SIXTH PUBLICATION OF THE PRESS.

Posted at 22:56h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
58 x 46cm, two colour silkscreen on thin paper. The word FLEECE is surrounded by words made up of the last four letters of the word but transposed into new combinations (ECCE/CEEC/ECEC/CECE) much like a covering (a fleece). The colour patterns also create a cross in the middle of the paper - hence along with ECCE (trans. BEHOLD), and the metaphor of sheep which is often used by christians this gives this work a strong religious flavour. The design was by Alister Cant on Bann's instruction. Very good condition. Murray has this as 1.6.

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18 Jun CANAL STRIPE SERIES 4. 1964.

Posted at 14:33h in Artist's Books

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
17.5 x 28cm, 16pp. Original wrappers and yellow typographic dustjacket. The second of a number of artist's books using the "Canal Stripe" title - the text internally is printed near the bottom of each page. The text reads "little fields/long horizons" and "little fields long for horizons" and "horizons long for little fields". The movement of the word order changes the meaning of each phrase in turn - the first is a statement of a landscape, the second suggests that there is an emotional desire by the little fields to have horizons (presumably they are too small to be able to create a horizon) and finally the joke "horizons long (all horizons are long after all) for small fields" indicates the geographical relationship between these elements of the world. This is again a favourite Finlay method - word order altering the world view around the viewer. This was the first time this was published in a printed item.

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18 May CIDADE. CITY. CITY. 1964.

Posted at 16:04h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn, 1964
20.1 x 24.5cm, 4pp. Single sheet with de Campos' text in Brazilian and English. A folded broadside featuring a concrete poem of words arranged on a single line without spacing that begin on the front page but ends on the last with the words "CIDADE. CITY. CITY". The fith publication by Finlay's Press and part of the poet's introduction of the South American concrete poets to the English speaking world. VG+

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25 Apr POSTER/POEM (LE CIRCUS!!) 1964. THE FOURTH EVER PRINT FROM THE WILD HAWTHORN PRESS.

Posted at 21:10h in Prints + Posters

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press 1964
43.2 × 56cm, blue, orange and black silkscreen on paper. One of the earliest and also most important of poster poems by Finlay. A concrete poem and word landscape.
le circus!! is presumably the name of the boat which is equipped with a green and a red blinker on each side. It has the number K47.
The ship is fully manned but also has corks, nets and the usual fishing tools.
There is a phrase which says "they leap BARE-BACK through the rainbow's hoop" - which one might presume refers to fish but it seems also to be applicable to the boat.
The whole paints a picture in words but also from the layout of the sections one can see how the various elements relate to each other in this snapshot of a fishing trip. But the whole scene is also an entertainment such as one might find in the circus with some of the language used reminding the reader of horses and horsemanship.
An extremely difficult to find print this example has pin holes and some stains in margins. Some prints were sometimes pinned up on walls during poetry readings and then recovered for reuse later - this is one such print. Murray has this as 5.4.

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15 Apr POTH (POOR OLD TIRED HORSE) NR 12. 1964.

Posted at 13:32h in Poor Old Tired Horse + Broadsides

Edinburgh; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1964
26 x 21cm, 4pp + 1pp insert. The twelfth number of Finlay’s poetry publication with contributions by Jeffrey Steele, Paul de Vree, Mary Ellen Solt, Edwin Morgan, Dom Sylvester Houédard, J.F. Hendry, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Ernst Jandl and Lewis Carrol. By this number it was clear that POTH was mostly dedicated to the visual poetry movement and all contributions here display strong visual elements. VG+ condition
INSERT:
26 x 21cm, 1pp. "International avant-garde publications form" - items available for sale from Wild Hawthorne Press. Notes that "My Friend tree, 16 Once Published, Glasgow Beast, Concertina, Standing Poem" are out of sale." VG.

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