London: Victoria Miro Gallery, 1995.
15 x 10.5cm, 4pp (single folded sheet) with a drawing of a "birthday cake" on the front which is actually a neo-classical broken column (drawn by Gary Hincks). The announcement for a solo show of recent small publications by Finlay to honour his 70th birthday. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
Two different cards - one is 9.4 x 8.3cm and the other 8.3 x 5.2cm
The first card has a text:
GILL SANS
Whatever
GILL SANS
says
it always
says
'Gill Sans"
The second card has a design by Gary Hincks, where the Underground sign has the station "GILL SANS" on it.
Gill Sans is the name of a sans-serif font family based on a design by the artist and typographer Eric Gill. It was originally inspired by another font by Edward Johnston in 1916 - an "Underground Alphabet" which Gill had helped develop as a younger man.
The font was very successful and was marketed for its clarity and lack of fuss: this seems to have caught Finlay's interest in the short poem whereas the second card is a clear reminder of the origins of the letting style. Both are VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
12.5 x 13cm, 48pp plus flower pattern boards and tipped on book title label. Artist's book with ten woodcuts by Gary Hincks of flowers opposite epigrams by Finlay such as
4. A wild flower is a garden flower permeated by morality and poetry."
One of only 250 such books prints as Christmas gifts. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
11.7 x 15.9cm, 1pp. Printed blue and orange on white card - the drawing of the boat is after William Gilles (as I write this I am only 100 m from Gilles former house) by Gary Hincks. Finlay often compares boats with lemons. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
6.4 x 7.7cm, 4pp (single folded sheet) with a painting by Gary Hincks of a sky full of white trails on the front. Inside Finlay has a two line poem
Season of mists and milling Messerschmitts,
Close bosom-friend of the repeating gun.
The smoke trails are not solid but dotted lines - much as a trail of bullets can be seen in comic depictions of machine gun fire. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1994)
63 x 51 cm, blue on white offset lithograph displaying a boat in blue. The drawing by Gary Hincks and after a detail from a painting by WIlliam Gillies.
Yet another example of Finlay's intense interest in maritime affairs and the title reflects other works where the poet compares boats to lemons - even blue lemons.
As I write these words I can walk outside my back garden and see William Gillies's former house in Temple, Midlothian.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
15.5 x 9.1cm, 2pp card with a drawing by Gary Hincks of Saint Sebastian "martyred by liberals making "points".
One of Finlay's many pointed (like arrows) small publications aimed at his enemies both real and imagined. This example is hand addressed by Finlay to his friend and collaborator Janet Boulton. VG+.
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London: Victoria Miro Gallery, n.d. (1994)
14 x 12.2cm, 4pp announcement card with a drawing of a boat on the front (by Gary Hincks?). Pia SImig is credited as a collaborator in this card - it is not clear what the work entailed. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
9.7 x 9.2cm, 4pp Christmas card printed black on white with a drawing after John Flaxman by Gary Hincks of "Sleep and Death conveying the body of Sarpedon to Lycia" - from Homer's 'Iliad'.
Finlay uses the image to add a new legend:
A flak-damaged B-17 finds a friendly escort in enemy airspace. Level contrails are those of out-going USAAF formations.
A previous published card by Finlay also updates a re-working of Flaxman to the second world war.
Sarpedon was a prince in the Trojan war who was killed and sent home for burial with the help of the gods.
This example is in original mailing envelope and has the message "happy Chrstmas from Ian in red felt tipped pen over the inner blank double pages. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
11 x 7cm, 44pp plus green embossed boards. An artist's book with sixteen line drawings of various roses by Gary Hincks with the names of appropriate boats and their harbour numbers below. The last rose is XMAS ROSE and the name printed in red.
A long time interest in using boat names and numbers as poetry and sound elements as well as identifying certain boats with flowers is here again prominent.
This was published as a Christmas gift by Finlay in an edition of only 250 copies. VG+.
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Lenbachhaus: Stadtische Galerie, 1993
11 x 10.4cm, 40pp plus printed brown boards. Artist's book with drawings of wild flowers by Gary Hincks with their common name alongs side their scientific classification. A single text at the end of the book states:
Das Wort aus Stein: Wildflower. (Trans. The word of stone: WIldflower).
which may refer to the strength of such flowers (oft called weeds) in surviving.
JOINT WITH:
11 x 10.4cm, 12pp accordion folded insert. A textual commentary by Patrick Eyres.
Both one of 750 examples printed on the occasion of a German exhibition in Lenbachhaus. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
9.8 x 10.1cm, 4pp card with a painting by Gary Hincks of a wheel barrow full of wood. A visual poem.
Interestingly and perhaps the point of the card - the word bouquet comes from the Old French "bosquet" equivalent to bosc wood. VG+.
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