15 Dec

Posted at 09:42h in Artist's Postcards

Little: Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, Xmas 1994
6.7 x 13cm, 4pp card with 6.7 x 13cm, 1pp insert.
The card is a typical evolving visual poem by Finlay:

the October-coloured sails of old Thames barges
the water-filled footprints of old Thames barges
the cold Christmas stables of old Thames barges
the Georgian pastorals of old Thames barges

The fourth line is printed in festive red.
The insert explains the imagery: the October-coloured sails are caused by the linseed oil on the sails hinting at Autumn colours, the water-filled footprints comes from a quote from a book on old barges where abandoned boats are left in mud in creeks to rot, the festive line recalls the "long, low holds with their tie beams and ceilings" which Finlay clearly sees as a suitable site for a manger, and the Georgian pastorals reflects the hay and straw that many of the boats carried - turning them into miniature moving countrysides.
This example is signed " Happy Christmas from Ian" in pencil on the back and also has the original envlope which is addressed in pencil (again by Finlay) to Edward and Jan. VG+.

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28 Nov

Posted at 13:50h in EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

Berlin: Kewenig, 1994
49 x 34.5cm, 8pp. Exhibition catalogue in the form of a tabloid newspaper. Five full sheet (one double) appropriated portrait images by the artist and a text in German and English by Jiri Svestka. Folded into sixths as issued and with original printed mailing band. VG+.

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18 Oct

Posted at 09:14h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Malmo: Malmo Konsthall, 1993,br. 27 x 21.5cm, 1290pp plus original wrappers. Plus 27 x 21.5cm, 8pp printed insert. Artist's book which appropriated a telephone book from the Swedish city Malmo which Boltanksi placed a printed label on the front cover. Inside he circled an area of the district map using felt-tipped pen and additionally added an addendum of names and addresses and numbers as a separate insert which claims "You cannot call these inhabitants of Malmo, they died in 1993".
This book is one of only 25 signed copies (on the inside cover) aside from the unsigned edition of 400 issued during the exhibition "Christian Boltanski" in Malmo. The book is in original mailing box sent to M. Berg.

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10 Oct

Posted at 09:17h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
Two cards in same format although one is printed blue on white, the other brown on white - each 6.7 x 10cm, 4pp (assymetric fold) . The cards both have PL on the front but when opened the blue card reads PL/OVER and the brown card reads PL/OUGH. Both are things (bird and farming equipment) that one would find in spring. The blue and brown, of course, reflecting the sky and dirt (blue and brown being often used by Finlay in part for the sky/earth dichotomy but also an oblique reference to Wittgenstein). VG+ in like envelope.

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23 Sep

Posted at 10:01h in David Bellingham

Glasgow: Bellingham, 1994
14.7 x 11. 5cm, 24pp hand made artist's book which has alternative black and white card pages and between the pages Small yellow inserts with hand typed text with opposing adverbs and adjectives such as on/off and light/dark or left/right before/after or that/this and this that. The front cover is also typed with a long list of complementary colours such as blue/red and yellow green.
This is one of only 35 hand-made books (each was typed by Belllingham) and one of the artist's very first works made while he was still a student. VG+ in original plastic transparent envelope as issued. The book is signed and numebred by the artist on the inside back cover. Very rare.

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23 Sep

Posted at 09:55h in David Bellingham

Glasgow: Bellingham, 2016
14.7 x 11. 5cm, 28pp plus card covers. An unique hand made artist's book which has black inner pages on which half have diagonal close hatched lines hand-drawn on each page to take up 50% of the space of the page - hence "Half full/half empty".
This is one of only 35 hand-made books but each is (as noted) unique and one of the artist's very first works made while he was still a student. VG+ in original plastic transparent envelope as issued. The title is hand written on the front and the back in pencil and the book is signed and dated by the artist on the back cover. Very rare.

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23 Sep

Posted at 09:50h in David Bellingham

Glasgow: Bellingham, 2016
14.7 x 11. 5cm, 24pp hand made artist's book which has black and white card pages which have been split by the artist and string bound together. As a result each page is black and white in equal amount. This is one of only 35 hand-made books and one of the artist's very first works made while he was still a student. VG+ in original plastic transparent envelope as issued. The title is hand written on the front and the back in pencil and the book is signed and dated by the artist on the back cover. Very rare.

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09 Sep

Posted at 14:24h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Dublin/Glasgow: CCA and Tramway, Glasgow, 1994 25.5 x 37cm. embossed folio-folder with ribbon-tie, content of four texts (50 pp. combined), each housed in individual vari-colored folder, a single glossy offset sheet of 64 photo-based b/w images (housed in vari-colored folder), two sets of 24 b/w photo-based card images (2 x 6 cm., respectively) and 5 b/w photo-postcards documenting the title installation as wel as an image of the Mackintosh Library at Glasgow School of Arts+ contents sheet. Additionally there are five sets of bound "clocking-in" cards for supposed workers who were later, it is hinted at, were made redundant.
First issue of this intriguing assemblage multiple by Boltanski, after a project which was exhibited in Dublin and Glasgow. A poignant and provocative work. All elements intact (many online examples are missing the postcards) and in fine estate in like folio-folder.
One included item was an appropriated photographic postcard (originally by Bedford Lemere in 1910) of the Mackintosh Library at Glasgow School of Art alongside the other documents which related to lost things. Obviously Boltanski was not to know it would be "lost" itself in time when it burned down in 2014 almost 20 years later.
Scarce thus - many of the folders were lost in a warehouse water accident from the original printing of 500 sets (and many of the remainders bought as a job lot by Paul Robertson when the Glasgow CCA decided to sell off their bookshops stock.
The work is full of ironies.

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28 Aug

Posted at 14:53h in EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

Duisberg: Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum Duisburg, 1994
21 x 14.8cm, 48pp plus typographic card covers. Exhibition catalogue prefaced by an essay by Bettina Ruhrberg - "Auf der suche nach der verlorenen kindheit" followed by a second by Cornelia Bruninghaus-Knubel "kunst als Interaktion".
What follows are several pages showing 60 small b/w photographs of objects donated to the exhibition by the children of Duisberg and Moers and followed by a long list (with birth dates) of 506 children who donated objects to the archive. The final image is of the items on racks in the museum as they were displayed. VG+.

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26 Aug

Posted at 11:44h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn, 1994

11.7 x 10.8cm, 4pp outer printed blue folder content of a 11.7 x 10.8cm, 4pp printed purple insert with a text poem by Finaly. The full title of the work is "AN EARLY PICASSO IN J.L. DAVID" below which is a text from revolutionary sources about how female citizens should dress for one of the major public festivals encouraged by the National Convention. The description is suggested by Finlay to be equivalent of a Picasso painting but 200 years beforehand.

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17 Jul

Posted at 22:16h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
13.1 x 10cm, 8pp (concertina folded sheet). Three variants the first being Guillaume Apollinaire's calligramme in the shape of a crown and then two variants by Finlay and Stephen Bann. Finlay's when deconstructed reads "The carp enters who die one by one live on in the hearts of the Jacobins". VG+.

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