Ian Hamilton Finlay - Unoriginal Sins

22 Jun ECHOES SERIES. 1995.

Posted at 22:56h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
16 x 11cm, 4pp orange outer folder with printed title. Internally a 16 x 11cm, 4pp sheet with two concrete poems both entitled THE INSCRIPTIONS but the first being for Carl Rakosi and the second for Harry Gilonis.
The former is an objectivist poet, the latter a friend of Finlay's and also a poet. The first form of the poem is duplicated in both but in the second Finlay has crossed out the original words, kept the physical structure but the classical names replaced by names of meaning to Gilonis. The echo here being the similarities in the two poems.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild Hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.

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19 Jun SEASONS. 1995.

Posted at 21:03h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1995)
8 x 7.7cm, 8pp plus card covers and printed typographic dustjacket. Artist's book with two poems by Finlay.
The texts read:

TWO BOATS
two half-moons

and

TWO BOATS
two snowdrifts

Two visual poems. VG+.
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11 Jun WINDOW. 1995.

Posted at 15:05h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1995) 11 x 11cm, 4pp artist's card with a b/w reproduction of a painting by Philip Wilson Steer (who often painted his subjects looking out of a window) and inside the text:

Philip Wilson Steer Paints the Waves at Walberswick.

"window"

Finlay also notes on the inside left page:

"window" - tinfoil strips scattered from an aircraft to confuse enemy radar

making a poetic correspondence between the flecks of rain seen in the painting with the war decoy. VG+. ...

10 Jun POLITICAL CORRECTIONS, NUMBER 1. 1995.

Posted at 18:57h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
14.5 x 10.5cm, 1pp. printed black on red card. Two quotations - one from a letter by a Untersturmfuhrer of the Hitler Youth Division before the Battle of the Bulge and the other from Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie. Both quotations discuss the glory of death in battle. Finlay by this correspondence suggests that the views of both good and evil are often the same and "political correctness" (which sound very like "Political Corrections" tends not to allow one to consider the views of the defeated in anything other than negative terms. A final note says "The works of J. M. Barrie ...

10 Jun 1762 – 1794. 1995.

Posted at 13:15h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995 11 x 10.7cm, 12pp plus card covers. Artist's book with a b/w photograph of the grave of Andre de Chenier from the Picpus cemetary (by Robin Gillanders) and a concrete poem by Finlay in the shape of a guillotine blade (the text reads Andre Chenier Des Illes Grecques HORIZON d'acier quie separa noting the fact that the poet was killed by the revolution by the blade.) VG+. ...

10 Jun ECHOES SERIES. THE CAMOUFLAGED MAGPIE. 1995.

Posted at 10:46h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1994) 8.4 x 6cm, 4pp artist's card with two poems internally:

the camouflaged
magpie

whose white
parts are
sky

and

the camouflaged
Messerschmitt

whose blue
parts are
Humbrol
.

The living bird is compared with a toy war airplane - the former however has natural colouring whereas the latter uses the paint brand Humbrol. VG+. ...

04 Jun A MOMENT IN TIME. 1995.

Posted at 14:01h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1995) 10.4 x 14.4cm, 1pp artist's card. A translation from Virgil's Ecloga (translated by Jessie Sheeler) reads:
BR> And now from the steadings already
smoke is rising: the shadows
of the light blue mountain tops extend.

VG+. ...

30 May UNTITLED. (A LINE OF FOAM ALONG AN EMPTY SHORE). 1995.

Posted at 12:40h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995 10.6 x 11.3cm, 4pp outer folder in grey with tipped on 9.5 x 44cm opened out, 8pp concertina folded, white paper with the text: "a line of foam along an empty shore" which is printed with a font that is not solid to reflect the form of the foam. VG+. ...

21 May BROUNT.

Posted at 13:38h in Artist's Books

Eindhoven: Peninsula, 1995
30 x 21cm, 22pp. Original printed card covers. Artist's book with 6 b/w images by Robin Gillanders of a dog bowl with the name Brount on it. Robespierre wasn't all bad - he greatly loved his dog Brount and took it everywhere. This book, one of my favourites, has the tale of how Robespierre bought his dog and the walks he went on together. VG+

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20 May GILL SANS. 1995. TWO CARDS.

Posted at 18:15h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
Two different cards - one is 9.4 x 8.3cm and the other 8.3 x 5.2cm

The first card has a text:

GILL SANS

Whatever
GILL SANS
says
it always
says
'Gill Sans"

The second card has a design by Gary Hincks, where the Underground sign has the station "GILL SANS" on it.
Gill Sans is the name of a sans-serif font family based on a design by the artist and typographer Eric Gill. It was originally inspired by another font by Edward Johnston in 1916 - an "Underground Alphabet" which Gill had helped develop as a younger man.
The font was very successful and was marketed for its clarity and lack of fuss: this seems to have caught Finlay's interest in the short poem whereas the second card is a clear reminder of the origins of the letting style. Both are VG+.

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09 May SCOTTISH BLUE BELL. WK279. MATCHBOX SCULPTURE.

Posted at 11:43h in Object + Paper Multiples

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.
5.5 x 3.5 x 1.3cm, original "Scottish bluebell" matchbox which has been modified by the addition of a printed glued on card such that when the box is opened the "Sail" of a boat emerges with the text "WK279" upon it - the boat's number. If you wish to google it then it is a real boat - working trawler. On another part of the card the text reads: "BLUEBELL Call Sign GMWZ 38 net tons". The boat's name , of course, matches the brand of the matches.
An ingenious small object multiple that charms in the surprise of the pop up "sail". Edition size not known. VG+.

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09 May ABOUT CONCRETE POETRY. 1995.

Posted at 09:54h in Page Works & Contributions

Firenze: Zona Archives, 1995 15 x 10.5cm, 36pp plus card covers and printed dust jacket. Monograph and review of international concrete poetry written by Maurizio Nannucci and Gabriele Detterer. Contains pageworks by most of the proponents of the genre - Mons, Gappmayr, de Vries, Kriwet, Spatola, Gomringer, Williams, de Campos, Mayer and Finlay's "Acrobat" in its b/w version is reprinted also. VG+. ...