Tilburg: De Pont, 1997
42 x 30cm, 16pp (self cover). Artist designed newspaper with many images of eyes in closeup. Each image seems haunting or even accusing.
Unopened in original outer wrapper Newspaper in near mint (folded) condition and bandeau with slight paper loss on unprinted right hand side. Now scarce.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
Two cards, both 6.8 x 7.6cm, 4pp. Both cards have the same text and only differ in colour - one light blue, the other cerise. The front of the cards both have SOUTH COAST SAILS printed vertically in three columns and then in the final column the letters of SAILS become the first letters of Sunset/Amber.Indigo/Lovely/Still. South Coast Sails are a company who supply sails to the boat trade. VG+.
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Peninsula and Van Abbemuseum, 1996
20.5 x 25.4cm, 80pp. Printed green cloth boards. Exhibition catalogue for a major group show of public works which includes many important artists including Robert Barry, Thomas A Claek, Hamish Fulton, Douglas Gordon, Jenny Holzer, Joseph Kosuth, Richard Long, Hans Waanders, Lawrence Weiner and others including Finlay.
Finlay's work is ICI ON DANSE - which is a neon based on the inscription found at the Bastille one year on when the site was transformed into a faux forrest and monument for a celebration. The slogan comes tfrom a translated text by Camille Desmoulins who can be credited being one of the people who initiated the attack on the prison which is usually regarded as the start of the actual French revolution. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
15.2 x 6.7cm, 4pp. Inside the bright red card ate two one-line poems:
On the uneven road the bobbin red sail of the postvan
On the nearby bush the distant postvan's rose-
The colour is crucial here - both metaphors rely on the easily identifiable colour for a sale or a rose. VG+.
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Llandudno: Oriel Mostyn, 1996
28 x 22cm, 40pp plus boards, First edition of this artist's book with a commentary by Harry Gilonis published on the occasion of an exhibition in North Wales. One fold out page. A series of linocuts by Jo HIncks illustrate one line poems by Finlay all of which are marine scenes.
"A grey shore between day and night" is "dusk" with an image of a boat.
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Munchen: Hessisches Landsmuseum/Gina Kehayoff Verlage, 1996
25.2 x 21cm, 48pp plus card covers. Artist's book consisting of 40 b/w photographic images of death. Published in conjunction with a museum exhibition, of the same name. Minimal text in German. VG+ although minor rust on staples.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
8 x 10cm, 6pp outer folder with an image of a starfish content of 6 8 x 10cm double sided cards.
One initially thinks there has been a printing error as the back of the cards seems upside down but if read in sequence the first side tells the story of a kidnapping of three Naval Protection Officers after a raid on a French trawler - La Calypso - by its crew, with the officers only released after a return to France. Red in the other direction the story of Calypso saving the life of Ulysses and holding him for seven years in her cave.
Finlay always enjoyed a naming co-incidence and the two stories obviously parallel each other in many respects. Small vignettes by Laura Gerahty. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
9.8 x 4.1cm, 4pp artist's card with a drawing by Jo Hincks on the front and inside a poem by Finlay:
HOT
DAY
Gary
Vida
Rhoda
Jo
in
boats
12.7.96
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Munchen: Gina Kehayoff Verlage, 1996
21 x 14cm, 64pp plus card covers. Artist's book consisting of 62 b/w photographic images of 31 people showing both younger and older selves opposite each other on each two pages. Minimal text in German. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
14 x 6.4cm, 4pp, The poem (after Louis Zukofsky) is
AFTER LZ
BR>
an
other
in
equality
wild
flower
The pairs of words when conjoined change the meaning to the opposite - which is also true of the last two words which are spaced apart to make the pairing less obvious. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
7.7 x 7cm, 4pp, outer folder with an internal tipped in 14.3 x 6cm (open size) sheet with the word Daisy repeated seven times in different type fonts. Literally making a daisy chain. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
11 x 10.5cm, 12pp with card covers and printed dust jacket. Three drawings by Hinks show a square of brown overlapped on the a slice of bread (Hovis Loaf), a brick (Hovis Brick) and a sail (Hovis Sail). Hovis is a brand name for cheap commercial brown bread in the UK - the brown square reminding one of a single slice. Bricks share a similar colour and one assumes so do sails.
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