Glasgow: Wax366, 2015
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp artist postcard designed by Coracle's Cutts but published by David Bellingham - printed letterpress with a reworking of a quotation by Stephane Mallarme - the original reading: "...
Glasgow: Wax366, 2015
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp artist postcard designed by Coracle's Cutts but published by David Bellingham - printed letterpress with a reworking of Saint Just's text from the arrest of Danton, the original reading: "The World has been empty since the Romans and only their Memory fills it and still prophesies Liberty." VG+
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London: V&A Museum, 2006
9. 2 x 9.2cm, 2pp ornate die cut announcement on thick card for an exhibition displaying works from a wide range of concrete and visual poets including David Bellingham, Thomas and Laurie Clark, Simon Cutts, Ian Hamilton Finlay., Robert Lax, Stuart Mills and others, The card is a recreation of the cover of the 1973 book of the same title designed by Simon Cutts - which is inspired by Malevich and has red, blue plus deliberate crease lines and tied cotton. One tiny mark bottom right else VG.
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Glasgow: Wax366, 2002
15 x 10.5cm, 2pp artist postcard displaying a photograph of a neon work by Simon Cutts. The neon was theoretically meant to be powered by wind turbine. The text reads: "Found the pomes in the fields and only wrote them down." VG+.
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Belper: Aggie Weston's Editions, 2000
21 x 15cms, 16pp, plus cards covers. An anthology of poetry chosen by Simon Cutts which includes Finlay's CASTLES, a traditional form poem. VG+.
JOINT:
30 x 21cm, 1pp signed typed letter from Stuart Mills to Paul Robertson offering copies of Star?steer and Sea Poppy 1 as the publisher/poet is in need of a new computer. Folded else VG+
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Edinburgh: Morning Star, 1997
14 x 10.5cm, blue card slipcase content of a 13.5 x 10cm, 28pp plus boards. Artist's book consisting of a number of contributions by Finlay, Harry Gilonis, Jackson Mac Low, Ian Stephen, Graham Rich, Haans Waanders, Simon Cutts, Thomas A. Clark, Pavel Buchler, David Bellingham, Richard Tuttle, Zoe Irvine, Alex Finlay, Simon Patterson, and Lawrence Weiner as well as others. One of only 200 printed. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1994)
8.4 x 6cm, 4pp artist's card with two poems internally:
the camouflaged
magpie
whose white
parts are
sky
and
the camouflaged
Messerschmitt
whose blue
parts are
Humbrol
.
The living bird is compared with a toy war airplane - the former however has natural colouring whereas the latter uses the paint brand Humbrol. VG+. ...
London: workfortheeyetodo, 1993
16.5 x 12.5cm, 1pp. Announcement card for an exhibition of books and other published material at Simon Cutt's gallery. Typographic design. VG+.
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Edinburgh: Fruitmarket Gallery, 1992
21 x 15cm, 8pp (single folded sheet). The programme and small poster for a group exhibition of works by a range of artists including Finlay. While not being specific to concrete and visual poetry the events (which included talks, films and workshops as well as the exhibition) - a large number of those exhibited worked in that field.
Poiesis as we all know is a definition of poetry as "anything supremely harmonious or satisfying" - which to be fair describes much of Finlay's work and motivation and is almost a definition of neo-classicism. Minor wear at folds else VG..
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Docking: Coracle, n.d. (1992)
14.5 x 10.5cm, 8pp plus stiff burgundy printed wrappers. A visual poem written by Simon Cutts in praise (and a little critical en passant) of his friend Ian Hamilton Finlay. Inside the book (which looks like a passport) there are 3 pages - the first is I and has a black rectangle of card pasted to the page, the next page has the H and has empty spaces where similar rectangles might be pasted and the final page F has a black card shaped like a guillotine blade.
Not only referencing Finlay's interest in the French revolution - but also a slight hint at the poet's somewhat irascible nature (which moderated in his old age - by the time I met him he was a pussycat) in the darkness of the shapes and the sharpness of the final "blade". A rather nice little work in homage to the man. VG+.
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Nevers: Centre d'art contemporain, 1990
15 x 10.5cm, Two bound in printed 6pp single sheets in outer 8pp wrappers. Ostensibly an exhibition catalogue but in fact a joint artist's book with Cutts. The two sections of the inner fold outs have on the left a text "a line of thin pale blue" and the sheet is bound in by a blue thread. This is claimed to be a "translation of a line by Mallame (a poet who can lay claim to have published the first ever concrete poem). On the right section there is a text: "a line of thin pale red" and the sheet is bound in by a blue thread. This is a "translation of a line by Chenier." André Marie Chénier was a poet who lost his life on the guillotine only three days before the overthrown of Robespierre.
The first is a line referring to the horizon, the second to the line of blood from the throats of the murdered - opponents of the Terror sometime wore thin red threads around their body to indicate their mourning for the dead.
A lovely artist's book - the theme (red thread) of which Finlay used in sculptures such as Aphrodite of the Terror from 1987.
Explanatory texts in English and French. . VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
14 x 9.5cm, 4pp. Artist's folding card with the text "a line of thin pale red" inside which is a translation from Chenier - the French poet of revolutionary times who was guillotined. The red here being blood and the line that left momentarily from the clean cut of the blade. I do not know if Cutts and Finlay were friends at this point - as the card seems to hint at threat - but both published jointly a similar work together under the aegis of Cutts' Coracle Press a few years earlier. VG+.
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