Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988 12.5 × 10cm, 8pp plus wrappers and printed red dust jacket. Artist book with three definitions for the word ‘swastika’ which show the symbolism can have different meanings and not all negative - Finlay has dedicated to Stephane Paoli, Catherine Millet and Michel Blum who all stupidly accused Finlay of being a Nazi when they saw an anti-fascist artwork which included a swastika. VG+. Very scare publication....
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
11.2 x 16.5cm, 1pp. Artist's card with two quotes - the first by Michael Archer in Art Monthly attacking Finlay for suggesting that Waldemar should be repatriated and pointing out the critic was from Berkshire not Poland.
The second quote suggests that Berkshire "is the sort of county that given half a chance would impose a toll to keep out the riff-raff and as such it attracts the sort of riff-raff who have acquired sufficient money to be allowed in...
Little Sparta: Finlay, 23 February 1988
Standard hand addressed DL manilla postal envelope to Inez Horst-Aletrino. Notable for the black rubber stamp impression added by Finlay to the front: "WHAT IS NOT RESOLVED IN LANGUAGE IS RESOLVED IN BLOOD" . Return address stamping on back. Slightly roughly opened.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
8.8 x 8cm, 12pp (accordion fold printed on one side only). Folding artist's card with images of a guillotine blade with four one line poems such as "Hard-edged abstraction" over printed on the image.
The publication is an attack on Michel Blum, Jonathan Hirschfeld and Yves Hayat all of whom had recently accused Finlay of anti-semitism (and had turned on Finlay despite the poet at one point helping him in his personal life). VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
8.4 x 13cm, 1pp. Artist's card attacking the Guardian art critic Januszczak. The text "Reader, be warned that within this thicket there lurks a name" is a jibe at the Polish name and a slight hint that Finlay regards Januszczak as a thicko. As with some of Finlay's attacks, this might well have been better not published as it hints at a xenophobia (which may have seemed less in 1988) although knowing Finlay he probably saw the profuse use of consonants in the name and thought of nothing else but that is being generous.
Finlay's ire was not to be fired up and a majority of the cards he published in the late 80s were attacks on his enemies. While sometimes amusing, and sometimes well aimed at people who had criticised him mostly unfairly, many are little more than slight barbs and this period of artist card production was not that artistically valid. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
10.1 x 14.8cm, 1pp. Artist's card attacking Michel Blum. The three lines read: "League fo Rights", "League of Bookts" and "League of Whips". VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
10.1 x 14.8cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a declaration that mirrors those of the Committee of Public Safety during the French Revolution where (here) Michel Blum) is referred to the Committee of General Security, for his various crimes and asking anyone wishing to offer evidence for or against Blum to write to Finlay. Dull and probably produced in the hope that some dirt on Blum might actually arise from someone reading the card.VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
10.1 x 12.7cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a quotation - "Racism of the anti-racists, terrorism of the anti-terrorists: the 1980's are the 1930's stood on their head." (sic) Typographically the two dates are set above in large font size with the 1930 upside down to make a visual correspondence to the each other and the text. Another attack card here without naming criticising Millet and her cohorts. Interestingly Finlay makes one of his rare mistakes in the text and incorrectly adds a " to the years. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
10.3 x 15cm, 1pp. Artist's card with an amusing adaption of the much loved children's first line of learnt French - taken from a song - here altered to become:
Le Pen est dans le jardin avec ma tante."
and dedicated to Catherine Millet. The "Le Pen" refers to the French leader of the fascist Front Nationale and one assumes the "aunt" is Millet. Nicely barbed. A monostich is a one line poem integral to itself. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
10.3 x 14.2cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a quote from Jean-Paul Marat to Michel Blum and Yves Hayat (obviously re-applied by Finlay) which suggests that they do not have judgement, courage or virtues. The design here is the same as that of the previous card "Cruel and ingenious sophists". VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
10.3 x 14.2cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a quote from Robespierre to Catherine Millet and Jonathan Hirschfeld (obviously re-applied by Finlay) which suggests that they are charlatans and that they will "be carried away like insects in its on-rush; your success will be as fleeting as lies and your shame as immortal as truth". The design here is the same as that of the following card "Paris is the sink of all virtues. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
20.9 x 29.6cm, red and black offset lithograph on paper. A typographic print with the title text reminding of how women supposedly knitted while watching the executions on the guillotine. Apocryphally they would drop a stitch as each head fell into the basket. Finlay uses this statement to have a go at Catherine Millet for her attacks on him in the Art Press, Paris - comparing her to the ghouls beside the scaffold. VG example.
There was a companion print to this one with the text in English issued at the same time - see our previous listing here.
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