John Nash - Unoriginal Sins

23 Apr SEVEN DEFINITIONS. PERTAINING TO IDEAL LANDSCAPES. 1989.

Posted at 16:11h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1989)
33.5 x 48.5cm, printed folder with calligraphic text by John Nash. Content of seven 33.5 x 48.5cm, 1pp lithographs in folder. Each work is one of Finlay's later "definitions" works - the structure being that of a word such as GROVE followed by a poetic definition and then a longer quotation from a classical source using the word in a manner that reflects the definition. For instance:

PEACE n. according to St. Ignatius of Loyola the simplicity of order

War on the castles, PEACE to the cabins
Slogan of the French revolutionary armies.

All elements fine in like folder.

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29 Nov TWO VISIONS. 1987.

Posted at 14:35h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
29.6 x 21cm, green on light brown offset lithograph with a lengthy text with two conflicting etymologies of the word Folly. The first from a National Trust book on Follies which had attracted Finlay's ire for including Little Sparta as a folly has a negative connotations. The second is from the French "folie" - meaning delight or favourite abode which clearly Finlay prefers. VG+>

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06 Jul FOLLIES. 1987.

Posted at 18:02h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
29.6 x 21cm, BLACK on light brown offset lithograph with a series of small digs at the National Trust by quoting the most absurd parts of the "Follies, A National Trust Guide" that had so offended the poet - such as:

ITS REGARD FOR THE ENGLISH PEOPLE
"It's (Berkshire is) the sort of county that given half a chance would impose a toll to keep out the riff-raff, and as such it attracts the sort of riff-raff who have acquired sufficient money to be allowed in...