Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1978)
5.1 x 7.7cm, 1pp. A fake Erratum slip for the Arts Council of Great Britain where Finlay suggests in their publication - for "mind" read "void". A rather nasty little dig in revenge for what Finlay regarded as a slight when full ACGB support was not given to him in his various battles. VG+
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
10.5 x 15cm, 1pp. A drawing of a tank in camouflage and in vegetation by John Borg Manduca is overprinted with a jokey "reply card text". The options are:
Thank you for your communication
You will be hearing from us shortly
You are not the only big shot around here
We are getting your range.
Humorous of course, but also a hint at Finlay's combative and defensive view of the world (although the major battles lay ahead in 1980) but by now he had already had a legal battle with Fulcrum Press (which was bankrupted over the issue) and had pulled his work from a Scottish Arts Council show in this same year when he felt insufficiently supported by them. VG+
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1979
4.4 x 3.4cm, 4pp. Finlay's smallest folding card, this has a line drawing by Ivy Sky Rutzky on the front of a butterfly and inside a text:
A Red
Admiral
or
A.B.
Sadly we cannot identify who "A.B." is.The folding of the small card and its size however do reflect the shape and size of a butterfly's wings. VG+.
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1979
19 x 9.3cm, 2pp. A plan for an architectural and garden installation based on the 1967 Finlay poem Cytheria is shown on the front. The various element of the poem are to be planted or inscribed in stone in the garden. Never realised this is one of the very first 'proposals' by Finlay but we have decided to catalogue it as an artist's postcard due to its format.
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1978)
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp. The painting on the front of a tank pushing through the undergrowth is entitled after Stalin's famous rhetorical question "How many divisions does the Pope have?" - only Finlay asks it of Arcady, the mythical rural utopia. This is one of a long number of momento mori by Finlay - the weapons of death have invaded Arcadia and soon all that my be left are ancient skulls.
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1979)
10.5x 15cm, 2pp. A typographic version of Finlay's earlier Wave work in which a word is transformed by the letters being re-ordered. But additionally this is a dialectic with "wave" being thesis, "solitary Wave" being antithesis and "great wave of translation" being the synthesis.
The "great wave of translation" also references the proof-reader's mark for transposition.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1979) 15.8 x 3.6cm, 1pp bookmark - the first edition of this small paper multiple which lists various words associated with trees in a column with the placing of each word relative to the physical structure of the arboreal structure. The bookmark was reprinted by the Morningstar Press, VG+.
DUnsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1979)
15.8 x 3.6 cm, 1pp green on white card/bookmark. The text is a list of words associated with a tree including mythical beings such as a Dryad, insults to the trunk - carved "initials", and ways of considering the tree as a person - heart. The long column of words of course also reflecting the shape of the tall tree. Arguably an object multiple as much as a postcard but we have decided to retain it in the artist's card section. VG+.
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1979)
5.5 x 13.5cm, 1pp blue on white card. The words Snow and Bark are both given definitions with on the left hand side the order being Snow then Bark. That combination of the words and definitions together conjure up an image of a white boat (possibly in snowy weather). On the right when reversed (so that the words read Bark then Snow) then the image is of a different ship - a wooden boat.
Both snow and bark can be names of types of boats.
A typical Finlay word picture - a poem created by combinations of double meanings. VG+.
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1979)
7.8 x 24cm, 4pp (asymmetric fold). The typography by Ron Costley sets the three words together to form an unitary text. Elsewhere Finlay has used these exact trio of words together to describe the shallow fast moving water of a stream - but now the white on blue lettering gives a different meaning - the bark or outer layer here is the foam on the top of waves with the (deep) blue water beneath it. A visual poem.
Finlay also produced a much larger silkscreen print of this werk.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (c. 1980)
16.2 x 22.9cm, printed envelope content of a selection of two artist's books (Woods and Seas, Two Billows) and four artist's cards (Snowbark, Birch-Bark, Cytheria and ARBRE (TREE))- while thematically about "woods and seas" as per the title the selection seems a little random and possibly simply filled with items from the Press that Finlay had many copies of (Two Billows was also bound into another publication about artist's books so one guesses over a 1,000 would have been needed to fulfil all those publications and to be a stand alone book which is almost three times Finlay's most common print run of 350). These items are all described elsewhere on this site so this entry is for completeness really. All VG+ in like envelope.
