TWO BILLOWS. 1980

Dunsyre, Lanark: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1980)
13.6 x 8cm, 4pp plus blue wrappers. Artist’s book where Finlay has only two different paper types bound together in the wrappers – one is blue and the other is white. There is a reference to Henty Vaughan’s “The Timber. Silex Scintillans” on the back fold.
Vaughan was a metaphysical poet of the 17th century and Silex Scintillans published in 1650 was a major religious text which was published in two volumes with a significant gap in time between them (possibly due to illness) . The Two Billows of the title refers to the two volumes and the change in colour of the two pages reflects the differences in the two books. A visual poem with a literary and religious meaning although the boat vignette on the cover may suggest the more literal meaning of two billows – two pushes of air helping the vessel steer a true course. VG+.