Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994 21.8 x 12.2cm, 4pp folding card printed green on cream card with a drawing by Gary Hincks on the front of a cairn of stones and an oar covered in netting to create a makeshift monument - a reference to Homer's Odyssey. This was a proposed public work for Bernhard and Marie Starkmann. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
252 x 14.8cm, 28pp plus card covers and typographic dust jacket. A proposal in book form for the cladding and internal walls and glass of a German bank. The external works are all "definitions" such as:
AFFLUENCE n.
A SHORTAGE OF SACKCLOTH & ASHES.
which is ironic for a bank.
Internally wall paintings of "Evening will come they will sew the blue sail" and also "Wave/Rock" are found. The glass entrance doors have Star/Steer etched upon them.Text in English and German and all works photographed in b/w. The central seven images of the outer claddings open out as an accordion fold-out. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10 X 10cm, 4pp card with a drawing of the ”Cabane” by Andrew Whittle on the front and internally a drwing of the proposed motto to be above the door:
LA CABANE A SES RAISONS QUE LA MAISON NE CONNAIT POINT
The proposal for the restoration of the stone hut in Provence was to be built using the original stones except for the lintel with a variation on Pacal's famous dictum which translates into "THE HUT HAS ITS REASONS THAT THE HOUSE DOESN"T KNOW". Pascal's original was The heart has it's reasons that reason doesn't know. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
17 x 28cm, 4pp outer folder content of a 17 x 28cm, 4pp semi-opaque sheet with a proposal for an installation for the new Gallery of Modern Art,Glasgow
Finlay explains the work thus: "The drama of the deeply recessed windows is accentuated by an inscription which plays on a well-known slogan from the French Revolution. The words are set within simplified linear representations of a guillotine blade, both elements (verbal and graphic) being realised as clear glass within frosted glass, allowing a contrasting partial view of the present-day street. Speaking of The Terror, the French socialist historian Jaures wrote: 'The scaffold filled the city with a glow of immortality.' Questions such as that of the survival of the soul after death had ceased to be academic.'" VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
11 x 22cm, 20pp plus two fold outs and leaf patterned boards with tipped on label. A proposal for the grounds of London's Serpentine Gallery which consisted of semi-circle of 8 benches with plaques and a single central plaque in the Meadow Area. The texts are all translations from Vigil talking of a distant view - but each translation takes on different nuances of the original. Translations are by Finlay himself with Jessie Sheeler, Samuel Palmer, C Day Lewis, W F Jackson Knight, Harry Gilonis, John Caryll, and Charles Calverley. Virgil's own Latin quotation is also present on the final bench.
A further plaque again quotes Virgil: "Home, goats, home, replete, the evening star is coming." - a quotation that in which one recognises aspects of Finlay's most famous work - "Evening will come, they sew the blue sail."
A massive carved circular paving stone is also proposed to be placed at the entrance to the gallery listing the latin names of trees that are found near to the gallery. Lettering was drawn by Peter Coates and Andrew Whittle. Maps and cover paper by Gary Hincks.
Magdeburg: Bundesgartenschau/Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
18.5 x 17.8 (folded size), gate-fold artist's card (with double fold sides) with a drawing of a sheep's fold by Laurie Clark printed brown on light beige card stock. A proposal for a former military training ground in Germany, Finlay proposes a stone built old fashioned shipfold with gate that visitors are welcome to enter. On the stone is a title of a Salmuel Palmer etching "Folding the last sheep" (a text used by both Finlay and more often by Thomas A. Clark) and on the gate are the carved words :SHepherd's song"). The text is also found in German on the card. This is both artist's card and proposal but we have placed it (as has the Press) in the latter category). VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
101 x 8cm, 32pp plus end papers and green embossed boards. A proposal offered to Laumeier Sculpture Park in Saint Louis, the book has four paintings by Grahame Jones of leaf-like shapes (cast shades) - the elm, the pine, the plane and the lime. The choice of shades (shapes) comes from a quote by Vigil (a plane-tree was a common garden element in those days as were the three others mentioned).
The work was installed in 1994 and consisted of the four named trees planted together on an earthwork - making Virgil's quotation literal. it is possible to sit under the trees in their shade.
