Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.
18 x 14cm, 4pp brown outer folder content of a 4pp insert with a poem by Finlay:
AUTUMN.
The woods
milestones
The mountains
signposts.
Finlay indicates how the distant hills act as means of orientating a traveller and the trees act as steps on the way in any rural journey. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
18.5 x 12.2, 4pp. Folding card with a reproduced colour painting by Gary Hincks on the front which is a wild rose. The date 1794 was an important year in the French revolution as it not only saw the death of Danton by degree but also the Law of 22 Prairial where Robespierre centralised his unofficial dictatorship over the country by removing rights of defendants when accused of sedition or slandering the state. The wild rose for Finlay (which here has a bud alongside a fully opened flower) is signifying the wild actions of the Committee for Public Safety but also the potential of the revolution (which ultimately failed like most and returned France to the monarchy then Napoleon's despotism). This "definition" was used by Finlay in other works including a limited edition vase for wild flowers. VG+.
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London: workfortheeyetodo, 1993
15 x 10.5cm, 12pp plus printed glossy card covers. Exhibition catalogue listing 76 books and cards by Finlay. Text only. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
18.5 x 10.6, 4pp. Folding card with a reproduced colour painting by Gary Hincks on the front which is of a yellow wild flower. The definition of a Wildflower is given by Finlay as "A Mean Term between Virtue & Revolution". The word "mean" has two meanings here - an averaging or the synthesis of the two ideas of virtue and revolution and/or the effects of the themes of virtue and revolution causing chaos and unpleasantness (which is a mild way of describing The Terror). VG+
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Edinburgh: European Art Festival, 1993
24.5 x 17cm, 80pp and cover. Exhibition catalogue for a major public exhibition of light works which took place in Edinburgh. Finlay installed a huge neon work on the top of the Government's St Andrews House - the work was EUROPEAN HEADS but the word HEADS is upside down as if fallen and decapitated. Illustrated in colour. The glue binding has come loose else VG.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
9 x 7cm, 4pp (single folded sheet of card). The text which is embossed (raised) on this card to keep it white like snow reads:
SWANS IN WINTER
Snow on
the snow of
their wings
One of the most beautiful of the Xmas cards and very scarce. VG+ condition....
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
11.8 x 9cm, 36pp plus grey boards. An artist's book with descriptions of unrealised sculptural works designed to be placed in a garden (arcadia).
For instance:
The word FRAGILE in Roman letters, on a formal stone placed upright by the foot of a birch tree."
A birch has bark that is very easily removed - and even peels from weathering - hence it may be regarded as fragile. The Roman civilisation lasted for centuries but self-destructed very quickly in c. 480 AD. - and may also despite its long history be also regarded as fragile due to its own internal contradictions.
One of 250 such books printed as Christmas gifts by the Press. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
23.5 x 6.5cm, 4pp. Folding card with a drawing of old fashioned bee hives by Gary Hincks on the front with Finlay's text which is repurposing Pindar's classical reference to the "temple of the bees". The humming of the insects is compared to religious singing. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
7.6 x 8.5cm, 4pp card. A schematic drawing by Eva Maria Weinmayr of the Villa and its environs. A descRIption of the Villa, which is set in the German Wörlitzer Park, notes how the building has a son et lumiere event where a "volcano" - actually a "rock island" - would spill water down to the lake lit by lanterns to make the event seem like lava. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
12.5 x 14.8cm, 4pp. Folding card with a drawing by Michael Harvey on the front and inside. The watering can has the text on it that is repeated inside the card so it can be read in full: "The mute dispenser of the vernal shower". The latter is an adaption of Thomas Gray’s 1769 "Sweet is the breath of vernal shower . . . The still small voice of gratitude" (‘Ode for Music’). The water from the watering-can is now a spring-time shower but without any sound of rain. Finlay may also be reminding the reader of the events of Arrosoir 1974 when Robespierre and his cohorts were removed overnight by his colleagues on the National Convention but that was July and perhaps not a spring cleansing shower - that is moot. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
11.5 x 11.2cm, 4pp. Folding card with a painting by Gary Hincks on the front of a woman wearing a republican rosette watering flowers. The original is a Kate Greenaway painting albeit Hincks has altered the imagery a little and the word Thermidor placed top left. Lilies grow behind her (a symbol of the French crown) and she is watering red roses. Arrosoir was the month when Robespierre and his cohorts were removed overnight by their colleagues on the National Convention and the revolutionary calendar month's name translates to watering-can. Thermidorian reaction led eventually to the re-establishment of the French monarchy but the replacement to Robespierre while not as virulent was still a committed revolutionary regime. The painting is a cute metaphor for the events of July 1794. VG+
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Edinburgh: Fruitmarket Gallery, 1992
21 x 15cm, 8pp (single folded sheet). The programme and small poster for a group exhibition of works by a range of artists including Finlay. While not being specific to concrete and visual poetry the events (which included talks, films and workshops as well as the exhibition) - a large number of those exhibited worked in that field.
Poiesis as we all know is a definition of poetry as "anything supremely harmonious or satisfying" - which to be fair describes much of Finlay's work and motivation and is almost a definition of neo-classicism. Minor wear at folds else VG..
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