19 May LINES OF THIN PALE BLUE AND RED. 1990. WITH SIMON CUTTS.

Nevers: Centre d'art contemporain, 1990
15 x 10.5cm, Two bound in printed 6pp single sheets in outer 8pp wrappers. Ostensibly an exhibition catalogue but in fact a joint artist's book with Cutts. The two sections of the inner fold outs have on the left a text "a line of thin pale blue" and the sheet is bound in by a blue thread. This is claimed to be a "translation of a line by Mallame (a poet who can lay claim to have published the first ever concrete poem). On the right section there is a text: "a line of thin pale red" and the sheet is bound in by a blue thread. This is a "translation of a line by Chenier." André Marie Chénier was a poet who lost his life on the guillotine only three days before the overthrown of Robespierre.
The first is a line referring to the horizon, the second to the line of blood from the throats of the murdered - opponents of the Terror sometime wore thin red threads around their body to indicate their mourning for the dead.
A lovely artist's book - the theme (red thread) of which Finlay used in sculptures such as Aphrodite of the Terror from 1987.
Explanatory texts in English and French. . VG+.

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