IAN HAMILTON FINLAY

ARTIST’S POSTCARDS

THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. DON’T BE OVERHEARD SAYING THAT VIOLENCE EXISTS IN THE UNIVERSE: YOU MAY GET SHOT. 1988

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press / The Committee of Public Safety, 1988 4.4 x 9.9cm (folded size), 4pp artist's card with the text: "THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION "Don't be overheard saying that violence exists in the universe: you may get shot." Saint-Just Vigilante, after listening to Julian Spalding's radio interview with Ian Hamilton Finlay." and printed black on grey. Issued by Finlay as part of a series of c. 13 similar small cards each attacking enemies of the poet. VG+.

THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. In liberal democracy the Police may be unarmed but Fashion carries a gun. 1988

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press / The Committee of Public Safety, 1988 4.4 x 9.9cm (folded size), 4pp artist's card with the text: "THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. In liberal democracy the Police may be unarmed but Fashion carries a gun." and printed black on grey. Issued by Finlay as part of a series of c. 13 similar small cards each attacking enemies of the poet. VG+.

THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. “Deserters don’t like to be reminded that this world is a battlefield.” 1988.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press / The Committee of Public Safety, 1988 4.4 x 9.9cm (folded size), 4pp artist's card with the text: "THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. "Deserters don't like to be reminded that this world is a battlefield." Saint-Just Vigilante on certain liberals who dislike disputes." and printed black on grey. Issued by Finlay as part of a series of c. 13 similar small cards each attacking enemies of the poet. VG+.

THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. “Liberalism, n. a state of affairs in which the tree cuts down the axe.” 1988.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press / The Committee of Public Safety, 1988 4.4 x 9.9cm (folded size), 4pp artist's card with the text: "THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. "Liberalism, n. a state of affairs in which the tree cuts down the axe" and printed black on yellow. Issued by Finlay as part of a series of c. 13 similar small cards each attacking enemies of the poet. VG+.

THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. News from Strathclyde Region: In Strathclyde, where the Authority has direct access to the citizen’s bank account, self-locking mattresses are all the rage. 1988.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press / The Committee of Public Safety, 1988 4.4 x 9.9cm (folded size), 4pp artist's card with the text: "THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. "News from Strathclyde Region: In Strathclyde, where the Authority has direct access to the citizen's bank account, self-locking mattresses are all the rage." and printed black on red. Issued by Finlay as part of a series of c. 13 similar small cards each attacking enemies of the poet. VG+.

THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. News from England: A gerbil was elected Grand Secretary of the University of East Anglia Student Union, and Waldemar Januszczak was appointed Literary Editor of the Guardian.. 1988.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press / The Committee of Public Safety, 1988 4.4 x 9.9cm (folded size), 4pp artist's card with the text: "THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. News from England: A gerbil was elected Grand Secretary of the University of East Anglia Student Union, and Waldemar Januszczak was appointed Literary Editor of the Guardian." and printed black on red. Issued by Finlay as part of a series of c. 13 similar small cards each attacking enemies of the poet. VG+.

SAINT-JUST VIGILANTES, WATCH THIS SPACE!/HIRSCHFELD, BLUM, HAYAT, WATCH THIS EDGE! 1988.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1988) 3.9 x 9.7cm, 4pp artist card with the text: "SAINT-JUST VIGILANTES, WATCH THIS SPACE!" on the front, on the back of the card near the fold there is an additional text" "HIRSCHFELD, BLUM, HAYAT, WATCH THIS EDGE!". The way that the fold is on the card is reminiscent of a guillotine so the card becomes a threat to Finlay's enemies. VG+.

5 SIGNPOSTS INSCRIBED VINCENNES. 1988.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1988?) 21 x 15cm, 4pp folded card with two small vignettes by Kathleen Lindsley and a quotation from J.J. Rousseau's Confessions about how the writer walked to Vincennes and had an epiphany. Vincennes is now a part of larger Paris but it was a small town (where De Sade was briefly imprisoned) at the time (1749). VG+.

A DEFINITION FOR MICHEL BLUM. 1988.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
5 x 9.7cm, 4pp. Artist's card with a text:
A definition for Michel Blum
Ambiguous, n. of doubtful meaning. Of doubtful meaning.
A card attacking Blum for his absurd claims that Finlay was anti-semitic. VG+.

A FRAGMENT. 1988.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988.
83 x 10.8cm, 4pp - the Xmas card sent out by Finlay in 1988 to friends and clients. The card bears a poem:

A FRAGMENT

When bare black hedgerows
Wear white shadows
And the fields without snow
Face the fire:
a rug

The white shadows are the plumes of snow on the branches and the fields without snow is a visual correspondence of the rug. The other sides of the card are blank - or white like snow. VG+. Scarce.

DE MANN. 1989.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
12.8 x 20.3, 2pp card. The card has an appropriated drawing of a hunt in full chase - the hare has the name De Mann over it. Paul de Mann was an important literary critic who alongside Derrida popularised the concept of deconstruction. Finlay WAs clearly no fan. VG+.

BIRDS FLY, WATERFOWL PLY. 1989.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
11.4 x 8.9cm, 4pp. Artist's card with a drawing of an abstracted moorland/estuary (very similar to the colourful images used in From 35 One Line Poem postcards published earlier by Finlay - and the text "Birds fly, Waterfoul Ply" - one having the air above the water, the other the water and the moorland but the latter being compared to boats "plying" their trade. Strictly speaking ply means to move regularly over an area or to work steadily - something both boats and land birds tend to do. VG+.

Gary Hincks