John Borg Manduca - Unoriginal Sins

01 Sep DZAEZL. 1979.`

Posted at 14:04h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1979)
15 x 21cm, 16pp plus printed end papers (with a reproduced drawing of an aircraft carrier) and white card covers with dust jacket. The seven reproduced paintings by John Borg Manduca are accompanied by quotations and poems by Finlay.
The title poem has anagrams of the word "dazzle" accompanied by a "dazzle" painted boat - however the word dazzle is not part of the poem because the "camouflage" has worked (see separate listing for the unique glass work of the same poem).
Sadly the staples here have rusted and slightly discoloured parts of the inner sheets near the fold else VG+.

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14 Apr AND HOW MANY DIVISIONS HAS ARCADY? 1979.

Posted at 22:42h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1978)
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp. The painting on the front of a tank pushing through the undergrowth is entitled after Stalin's famous rhetorical question "How many divisions does the Pope have?" - only Finlay asks it of Arcady, the mythical rural utopia. This is one of a long number of momento mori by Finlay - the weapons of death have invaded Arcadia and soon all that my be left are ancient skulls.

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15 Nov REPLY CARD. 1978.

Posted at 07:33h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978
10.5 x 15cm, 1pp. A drawing of a tank in camouflage and in vegetation by John Borg Manduca is overprinted with a jokey "reply card text". The options are:
Thank you for your communication
You will be hearing from us shortly
You are not the only big shot around here
We are getting your range.
Humorous of course, but also a hint at Finlay's combative and defensive view of the world (although the major battles lay ahead in 1980) but by now he had already had a legal battle with Fulcrum Press (which was bankrupted over the issue) and had pulled his work from a Scottish Arts Council show in this same year when he felt insufficiently supported by them. VG+

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02 Aug HOMAGE TO POUSSIN. 1977.

Posted at 17:33h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1977
13 x 13cm, 16pp plus card covers and printed dustjacket. Ten reproduced paintings of tanks with camouflage some in vegetation by John Borg Manduca are joined with short legends by Finlay.
1. "To do Poussin over again, for the sake of the War God." abuts a tank with its muzzle pointed right at the reader.
another reads:
6. Pure Cannon Law. Which is a pun on the homophone Cannon - a canon law being an ecclesiastical law.
Unusually there are adverts for other Finlay book on the flaps of the dust jacket. VG+.

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24 Dec ARE AIRCRAFT CARRIERS URBAN OR RURAL?

Posted at 10:01h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1976
25 x 55cm offset lithograph in green and black on off white paper. A drawing by John Borg Manduca is printed in green and has elements of camouflage - hence Finlay's question: "Are Aircraft Carriers Urban or Rural?" makes sense as the huge vessel looks like greenery in the countryside. elsewhere Finlay has taken up this theme with a different print called "Topiary Aircraft Carrier".Murray has this as 5.56. VG+ condition.

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27 Sep AT THE FIELD’S EDGE…. 1976. ONE OF 300 SIGNED & NUMBERED COPIES.

Posted at 15:57h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
29.6 × 50.4cm, blue-grey on white silkscreen with a reproduced painting by John Borg Manduca of an aircraft carrier seen from a vantage point of the sea level which makes its size seem vast. There is also enclosing a separate sheet of tracing paper bearing the colophon information and Finlay's handwritten signature in ink.
The full quotation: ‘At the field's edge, on the vertiginous cliff-top, stood a solitary hut’ and clearly describes the greatness of such a vessel. We are not clear on the origin of the quote - please do let us know if you can identify it.
One of 300 signed and numbered copies. VG.

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04 Nov HOMAGE TO J. M. SYNGE. ART POSTCARD. 1975.

Posted at 11:06h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1975)
11.8x 15.1cm, 2pp artist postcard with a reproduced painting by Manduca of an air craft carrier. J. M. (Edmund John Millington) Synge was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival who wrote the bleak and realitic play The Playboy of the Western World. VG+. ...