Stephen Bann - Unoriginal Sins

09 Aug LAND/SEA INDOOR SUNDIAL. 1970.

Posted at 09:28h in Object + Paper Multiples

Edinburgh: Scottish Arts Council, 1970
33.5 × 30.7 × 7.5cm (when assembled) - etched glass, wood and aluminium gnomon in original custom made wooden box (with postal labels still attached) with 15.1 x 28.8cm, 1pp instruction/commentary leaflet by Stephen Bann. A significant early work which is similar in intent to the print LAND / SEA of 1967. The sundial's hour, declination lines and equinox line etched on the glass dial plate are all practical parts of a normal sundial but they serve to also remind one of the sea and a boat's journey across the lines of longitude and latitude as well as a visual pun of a net being cast from the boat and, finally, that of a sail billowing out from the mast.
The number twelve, which is 10˚ East of South according to the instructions, is etched in the glass such that if wished the sundial can work.
The number of these sundials made is not clear - probably not too many - and they are scarce indeed. This example is in VG+ condition and with all the original shipping materials and packing box.

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15 Oct POTH (POOR OLD TIRED HORSE) NR 25 ONE WORD POEMS. 1967.

Posted at 16:35h in Poor Old Tired Horse + Broadsides

Stoneypath; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1967
26 x 21cm, 8pp. The final number of Finlay’s poetry publication. Design and calligraphy by Jim Nicholson. Contributions from Ronald Johnson, Edwin Morgan, George Mackay Brown, Eli Siegel, Jerome Rothenberg, Alkman (translated by Guy Davenport), Hugh Creighton Hill, Stuart Mills, Pedro Xista, Alan Riddell, Martin Seymour-Smith, Kenelm Cox, Giles Gordon, Douglas Young, Edward Lucie-Smith, Stephen Bann, Dick Sheeler, Astrid Gillis, Oswald de Andrade, Ernst Jandl, Gael Turnbull, Aram Saroyan, Jonathan Williams and Ian Hamilton Finlay. VG+.
Finlay whilst not inventing the One Word Poem format certainly helped popularise it - he uses the format in a number of his artist's books. The last poems in this publication are by Finlay and include some of his best known works reformatted in to such a form.

A SEE-SAW
_________
SEA

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15 Jul POTH (POOR OLD TIRED HORSE) NR 24 . 1967. CONCRETE POETRY AT THE BRIGHTON (’67) FESTIVAL

Posted at 16:33h in Poor Old Tired Horse + Broadsides

Stoneypath; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1967
30 x 21cm, 12pp. The twenty-fourth number of Finlay’s poetry publication. Designed by Alistair Cant with photographs by Graham Keen. This is a photographic record of visual poetry works exhibited at different sites during the Brighton Festival and a de facto catalogue for the event. Works by Claus Bremer, Eugen Gomringer, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Hansjörg Mayer, John Furnival, Edwin Morgan, Stephen Bann and Kenelm Cox. VG+.

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15 May POTH (POOR OLD TIRED HORSE) NR 23 DESIGNATED AS “TEAPOTH 23”. 1967. DESIGNED BY JOHN FURNIVAL.

Posted at 16:31h in Poor Old Tired Horse + Broadsides

Stoneypath; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1967
26 x 21cm, 12pp. The twenty-third number of Finlay’s poetry publication - here designed by John Furnival and contributions by Max Weber, Theodore Enslin, Pierre Albert-Birot (translated by Stephen Bann),Ian Hamilton Finlay, Eli Siegel, Gael Turnbull, George Mackay Brown, Edwin Morgan, and Ronald Johnson. This number reverting to the more common collection of poems by different artists. VG+ condition. Scarce.

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15 Dec FORM NR. 3. 1966.

Posted at 09:08h in Page Works & Contributions

Cambridge: Form Magazine, 1966 24 x 24cm, 32pp plus typographic wrappers. This single number from series of magazines edited by Philip Steadman, Mike Weaver and Stephen Bann - here the third number which contains a section called "Poems by Ian Hamilton Finlay" which reproduced four works = Star/Steer, Purse-net Boat, Line Boats and the untitled but usually known as Planet. Interestingly the "circle" of Planet is placed more anti-clockwise than the print in Linea Sur of the same work (the reason may just be a mistake in layout in one of the publications). Purse-net Boa and Line Boats are less commonly found and there is an annotation by Finlay explaining that a Purse-seine is a "new kind of net that makes an actual ring arund the fish. It has been immensely profitable.".
Elsewhere there are works by Ernst Jandl, Paul de Vree, Kenneth Robinson and articles Charles Biederman, 'The Electrical -Mechanical Spectacle' by El Lissitzky., Great Little Magazines No 3: 'G' with work by Kurt Schwitters, Theo van Doesburg, Mies van der Rohe, and Miklos Bandi. VG+

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23 Jun FLEECE. 1964. THE SIXTH PUBLICATION OF THE PRESS.

Posted at 22:56h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
58 x 46cm, two colour silkscreen on thin paper. The word FLEECE is surrounded by words made up of the last four letters of the word but transposed into new combinations (ECCE/CEEC/ECEC/CECE) much like a covering (a fleece). The colour patterns also create a cross in the middle of the paper - hence along with ECCE (trans. BEHOLD), and the metaphor of sheep which is often used by christians this gives this work a strong religious flavour. The design was by Alister Cant on Bann's instruction. Very good condition. Murray has this as 1.6.

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