FROM “THE METAMORPHOSES OF FISHING NEWS”: 1970.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1970
12.5x 6.8cm, 2pp. The card is the one of a series that reproduce phrases found in journals and newspapers together to tell a quasi-story or visual poem. Here the headline “SHETLAND BOATS TURN TO SCALLOPS” is on the surface a tale of a change in fishing strategy – but of course it also can be read as a amusing transformation of the boats into shells. This reminds one of the classical tales of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” where every story is of a change in form for a participant (thus the use of ‘metamorphoses’ in the card’s title). Additionally scallop’s hollowed out shells have the shapes of boat hulls and Finlay has chosen an outline font for the main text which reflects that hollowing out in some typographic analogue way. As ever, several meanings are to be found in a simple work. One light stain bottom right else VG+. Now scarce.