THERMIDOR. 1989.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
21 x 15cm, 30pp with card covers and printed dust jacket. Ten drawings by Laurie Clark based on the ten names of the first decade (week) in the revolutionary calendar. The English translation of the names of the days of the first decade of the month of Thermidor is beneath each French name and the associated drawing. Thermidor was the month when Robespierre and Saint-Just and their colleagues in the Committee of Public Safety were guillotined effectively ending the period of The Terror.
Finlay suggests in an explanatory note at the back fo the book that those ten days become a "kind of via crucis - a Stations of the Jacobin Cross". VG+.
AFTER. 1989.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
13.5 x 13cm, 12pp plus silkscreen blue card covers. Drawings by Grahame Jones. The poems in French are all based on those by Verlaine and Denis. The first is
After Verlaine>
Les violons
De l'automne
(Les triangles
Du Printemps..)
One ofFinlay's most lovely of books. VG+.
BLADES. 1989. ONE OF 250 COPIES.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
15.3 x 10.6cm, 16pp plus card wrappers and red dust jacket. Four poetic works all relating to the French revolution. The first is
July 28, 1794
Refreshment for the wild flowers
which is a direct reference to the deaths of the members of the Committee of Public Safety who were the effective dictators of the Terror. The wild flowers being fed blood and bodies.
A Riddle
To those who watch, a waterfall; to its victim, a glacier.
The truth of the relativity of the observer when facing the guillotine.
One of only 250 copies. VG+.
BICENTENARY TEXTS. 1989.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
22 x 17.5cm, 20pp plus card wrappers and printed dust jacket. texts by Finlay are reproduced in English and French in a typographic only design. Later these works were reprinted as large posters and exhibited at the 369 Gallery in Edinburgh.
THE BLADE STAINED WITH BLOOD IS NO MORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION THAND THE ALTAR STAINED WITH BLOOD IS GREECE AND ROME.
and
WE WILL VIEW THE FRENCH REVOLUTION MORE SYMPATHETICALLY IF WE SEE THAT THE FACTIONS REGARDS THEMSELVES AS SOVEREIGN NATIONALS IN A STATE OF WAR.
Finlay both admires the unerring purpose of the Terrorists / revolutionary and sees both the purity and the rot within at the same time. The French translations were by Yves Abrioux. VG+.
5 PROVERBS FOR JACOBINS. 1989. SIGNED & DEDICATED BY FINLAY FROM AN EDITION OF 25O COPIES.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
11.6 x 7cm, 20pp plus card wrappers and printed dust jacket. Five drawings by Kathleen Lindsley are conjoined with Finlay's pithy proverbs.
"Temper harshness with tolerance, tolerance with justice"
when applied to the Jacobins (the most severe of the French revolutionary political clubs named after the religious order where they initially met) this can be seen as a plea for moderation. Another proverb reads:
"If you want to avoid the worst of the mud, walk in the ruts."
which also alludes to the moral state of the revolutionary club.
This is one of 250 signed copies which is dedicated to "Ian , with love from Ian" in red ink. VG+.
WOODPATHS. 1990.
Little Sparta: WIld Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1990)
8.7 x 14.4cm, 12pp plus wrappers and printed dustjacket. Artist's book where two sentences by Heidegger have been added to by Finlay with a final sentence.
"In the wood are paths which mostly wind along until they end quite suddenly in an impenetrable thicket".
"They are called woodpaths"
and
"They are paths where the heart and the foot walk hand in hand."
The drawing is by Solveig Hill. This is one of only 250 examples. Fine condition.
THE WARTIME GARDEN. 1990.
Edinburgh: Graeme Murray Gallery, 1990
24.5 x 24.5cm, 56pp plus card covers and printed dust jacket with tipped on illustration. A series of drawings by Ron Costley after instructions from Finlay which reinterpret modern weaponry as classical memes. A camouflaged tank is denoted as "GROVE:.
The second part of the book has various relief sculptures which are the same as the drawings in a different medium - a warplane has the word ECHO beside it - the radar being equated to the nymph who was cursed only to speak in echos. The sculptures are by John Andrew. VG+.
3 SAILBOATS. 1990.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
14 x 12.4cm, 4pp and printed card wrappers. The cover drawing of a boat is by Gary Hincks, internally are two poems by Finlay.
3 Sailboats
Juan Gris
Jean Cocteau
Erik Satie
opposite to
3 Sansculottes
Puvis de Chavannes
Camille Pissarro
Jean_Baptiste Corot
Finlay is associating the the thematic interests of the latter three painters (the lives of the poor and oppressed) against the bourgeois interests of Gris, Cocteau and Satie. The sansculottes being the working class mob in Paris during the revolution who could by sheer numbers overthrow the various attempts at moderate government and led eventually to the rise of Robespierre and the Terror. VG+.
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+.
TWO POEMS. 1990.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
14 x 12.4cm, 4pp and printed card wrappers. Internally are two poems by Finlay.
TOMBSTONE
Sundial
without
a gnomon
opposite to
MARBLE
Parachute
of
the gods.
Both images are of stones. The tombstone is a reminder of the passing of time even without the gnomon. The beauty of marble has landed from the heavens above.
TWO ADAPTIONS. 1990.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1990)
13 x 8.8cm, 8pp plus card covers. Artist's book with two poems based on originals by Symons and Goethe:
Murmur
of many
waters
Rustle
of redbrown
reeds
(After Symons)
and
The trees
are all
so still
A little
breeze
springs up
(After Goethe).
Finlay often alters short works or selections by other poets or authors. The changes brings a new meaning to the translations - often modernising. VG+.