WITHIN THIS THICKET…. 1988.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
8.4 x 13cm, 1pp. Artist’s card attacking the Guardian art critic Januszczak. The text “Reader, be warned that within this thicket there lurks a name” is a jibe at the Polish name and a slight hint that Finlay regards Januszczak as a thicko. As with some of Finlay’s attacks, this might well have been better not published as it hints at a xenophobia (which may have seemed less in 1988) although knowing Finlay he probably saw the profuse use of consonants in the name and thought of nothing else but that is being generous.
Finlay’s ire was not to be fired up and a majority of the cards he published in the late 80s were attacks on his enemies. While sometimes amusing, and sometimes well aimed at people who had criticised him mostly unfairly, many are little more than slight barbs and this period of artist card production was not that artistically valid. VG+