Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
17 x 12cm, 2pp artist's card printed black on white with a linocut by Gary Hincks after Ben Nicholson's Three Goblets. The linocut is similar to the original abstract work in that three rudders are shown overlapping in the design. A Coble is a North East English fishing boat with a long thin rudder which is reproduced here. A second card with a very similar drawing was published at the same time in black on blue. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
9.8 x 10.6 cm, 12pp, plus card covers and dust jacket. Content of 16 b/w drawings of knots used in netting by Gary Hincks- the subtle differences between them and the sequential way they are presented reminds one of the schematics of Sol Lewitt. The last pages of the book have a line by Finlay:
Variations on a Theme of Diamonds
net
A one line poem which notes the shapes of the netting as the ropes are pulled into diamond shapes. And the value of such nets to the fisherman.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
10.5 x 21.5cm, 4pp artist's card with a drawing by Gary Hincks of the long line of hooked lines (called a spray) used in Thonier French fishing. The image also has the overall look of water spraying. This card has a lengthy ink note from Gary Hincks to Janet Boulton (both Finlay collaborators) pointing out the work is a "twin" of her work "Thonier". Hincks writes: "it is a rod with lines and hooks from the Breton "Thonier: (tuna fishing boat). The rod is raised - as here when sailing out to the fishing grounds." VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
23.7 x 23.2cm, 4pp. Folding card (one of the largest published by Finlay) with a drawing by Gary Hinks of falling leaves. The pattern of the leaves is an exact placement of the letters in the original Apollinaire Calligramme Il Pleut from 1918 where the words are allowed to fall like rain. This "variation" on the work is transposed to represent Fall when the trees shed their foliage. Released by Finlay as a Christmas card. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
11.5 x 12.8cm, 4pp card with a drawing of a Zulu boat by Gary Hincks. The sails of the ship are black (reflecting the name of the type of boat). Internally Finlay has two texts:
ZULU
Feathers
of cloud
at the masthead
and
Feathers
of foam
at the waist.
The top and bottom of the moving ship show similar features. VG+.
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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.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
14.8 x 10cm, single folded sheet to create a 4pp card with a drawing by Gary Hincks of a model boat, Inside Finlay describes a model sailboat on chair, propped amongst cushions with a tape-machine playing the sound of wind, rain and ocean waves. The "event" is a conceptual sailing. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
12.1 x 18cm, 2pp artist's card with a sepia tinted vintage appropriated photograph of two river boats with the sails photo-modified by Gary HIncks to be black squares (seen at an angle). 2 Squares was a children’s book by the Russian artist El Lissitzky which is regarded as a development of Supremacism (following Malevich's Black Square) which the latter called the "Proun". Hence this image is a visual poem representing the half-way house between the Supremacist and the Constructavist. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
11.3 x 7.6cm, 4pp artist's card with a drawing of a ship by Gary Hincks printed black on blue. Inside the folded card is a poem by Finlay:
PORTMADOC NAMES.
of fathers
mothers
owners
aunties
ships
Finlay notes the tradition in Pormadoc of naming boats after relatives - and in the final line of the work he equates the ships to being as much alive as the characters they are named after. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
9.5 x 5.7cm, 4pp artist's card with a drawing of coiled boat ropes by Gary Hincks. Inside the folded card is a poem by Finlay:
BOAT LORE
Sails
are sails
but ropes
are
sheets
or stays.
On one level a simple explanation of boating terms (sailboat sheets are ropes or lines that are used to trim a sail), on another a deeper consideration of tautology and meaning. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
17.5 x 11.9cm, 2pp silkscreen artist's card with a drawing by Gary Hincks of pencils in a jar that are also propellors. One of the most attractive of Finlay's later postcards. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
17.0 x 6.3cm, 4pp outer folder content of two "cards" both 17.0 x 6.3cm, 1pp but one is a red and black drawing by Gary Hincks of a rudder and the other a transparent plastic with the word "Varnish" at the top. The plastic placed over the drawing reproduces the shine of the varnish one finds on most rudders. VG+.
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