Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1992)
10.2 x 6,.6cm, plain manilla envelope content of three 10 x 6cm, 1pp cards. The cards have texts at the top -
shepherd of stones on the grey card
pastor of oaks on the green card
and "pasteur de chenes" a quote from E. Lochac's Obelisque on the last white card. Lochac was a Jewish Ukrainian poet who lived in France and was persecuted by the Nazis. All VG+ in like envelope. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992 9.0 x 16.4cm, 2pp. A drawing by Annet Stirling shows a group of leaves behind which the word FiGLEAF can just be read. The reference being the hiding of the genitals of statuary by the absurd placing of a figleaf. VG+...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
9 x 11.4cm, 8pp plus card wrappers and green printed dust jacket. Two colour photographs by Eva Maria Weinmayer of a tree house which is revealed in the second photograph to be a model and incomplete. The two texts are both from Wittgenstein. The first which shows the seemingly complete treehouse is
"7. What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence."
and the second with the image that reveals the "tree house" to be fake is
"7.01 What we cannot speak about we must construct."
This is reminiscent of Lawrence Weiner's dictum on conceptual art:
1. The artist may construct the piece.
2. The piece may be fabricated.
3. The piece need not be built.
Each being equal and consistent with the intent of the artist, the decision as to condition rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership.
But of course Wittgenstein is interested in truth to which his solution was to say the only possible truth to be known is tautological. Finlay seems to be suggesting that an alternative is to create a new truth.
The treehouse was made by "Kroder, Korner and Weinmayr. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
16.4 x 14.9cm, outer folder content of a concertina 8pp insert printed one side only. A proposal for an "abbreviated doric temple" built on a hillside with four doric pillars but only completing part of a semi-circle. Finlay offers that the structure:
"embodies the original meaning of templum as a space marked out for divination. The stylobate is complete; the part-entabulature and supporting columns delineate "sacred" areas of the sky and, with the autere Latin inscription, frame the "everlasting" - also ephermeral - "temples: of the clouds."
The temple has the phrase "Aetema templa caeli" which translates to "the everlasting temples of the sky" which was cited by Varro in his De Lingua Latina.
There are three drawings by Mark Stewart - plans, sections and side elevations as well as an in situ drawing.
Sadly the printing of the inner pages has been poorly finished and there is sett off between the pages - else VG+. ...
Docking: Coracle, n.d. (1992)
14.5 x 10.5cm, 8pp plus stiff burgundy printed wrappers. A visual poem written by Simon Cutts in praise (and a little critical en passant) of his friend Ian Hamilton Finlay. Inside the book (which looks like a passport) there are 3 pages - the first is I and has a black rectangle of card pasted to the page, the next page has the H and has empty spaces where similar rectangles might be pasted and the final page F has a black card shaped like a guillotine blade.
Not only referencing Finlay's interest in the French revolution - but also a slight hint at the poet's somewhat irascible nature (which moderated in his old age - by the time I met him he was a pussycat) in the darkness of the shapes and the sharpness of the final "blade". A rather nice little work in homage to the man. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
11.6 x 7cm, 20pp plus card wrappers and printed dust jacket. Six drawings by Angela Lemaire are conjoined with Finlay's pithy proverbs.
"The wind is invisible/but we can see which way the trees blow"
This is one of 250 unsigned copies. VG+ but staples are rusty.
...
London: ICA, 1992 70 x 50cm, full colour poster with an image of one sculptural work "LA REVOLUTION EST UN BLOC" and Finlay's name. A print version of this poster was also released without the floating text. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
13.5 x 9.2cm, 4pp plus end papers and blue laid paper wrappers. The poem is as follows:
THE HAPPY CATASTROPHE
Be
falls.
and the explanation on the left "The happy catastrophe" - Friedrich Schlegel's characterisation of the French Revolution.
The word befalls is split as if part has dropped off or down but also is a physical reminder of a head falling from a body or the guillotine blade dropping down from above.
Slight former diagonal crease on cover but else VG.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
3.1 x 31.3cm, 4pp folded card sheet with a text:
DROPPING ZONE OF THE ROSE PETALS
in pink and
RECOLLECTION
in grey.
The colours reflect the petals first dropping, then the faded memory of their fall (the petals themselves also having lost their colour as they rot). VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1995)
23 x 16.1cm, printed envelope content of two cards - one with a text printed black on cream from R.R. Palmer's "Twelve Who Ruled" regarding Saint-Just's way to the guillotine:
Saint-Just stood up in the first cart, head held high, his neck bare, a carnation in his buttonhole, his eyes cooly surveying the crowds that lined the street. The old Saint-Just was restored who said, 'I despise the dust that forms me and speaks to you.'"
The other card is unprinted and blood red.
Both cards have been cut on the diagonal to create guillotine blade shapes.
Finlay's admiration for the purity and lack of compromise of Saint-Just ir reflected in many of his works. This is another. VG+ in like envelope....
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.
14.5 x 12cm, 4pp artist's card with two poems -
Everything Falls Downwards
gravity
and
Everything Falls Onwards
history
VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1992)
10.2 x 10.2cm, 4pp artist's card with a line drawing on the front by Stephen Duncalf of a toyshop but in a deconstructed style that could be read as both a vorticist style or a cubist construction. Inside there is a text by Finlay:
vorticist
toy shop
cubist
music shop
VG+. ...