Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
23 x 23cm (unfolded size), 2pp sheet of printed paper designed to be folded into a paper airplane shape and thrown.
The text inside: "BEAT THE REDS WITH THE WHITE WEDGE: CORRESPOND!" adapts the Russian revolutionary slogan from the famous painting by Lazar Markovich Lissitzky, suggesting writing letters may be a radical response to the attacks on Little Sparta by the Strathclyde Region. It should be noted that the dart is supposedly published by the "Committee of Public Safety" which was the centralised mechanism by which Robespierre and Saint-Just controlled the Terror of the French revolution. This is a mailed example to Ronnie Duncan with stamp and frank. Murray lists this as a card - which is debatable we have decided to categorise it as a letter/document because of it's intent as a campaigning item. VG+.

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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
14 x 9.7cm, 48pp (printed recto only) and printed white wrappers.
Artist's book with 16 quotations from Hagel paired with other classical and modern quotations from Hereclitus, Wittgenstein, Zeno, Coleridge, Pythagorus and Finlay himself. The conjoining of the tests brings new meaning to the Hegelian bon mots. This was a Christmas publication from the Press which was often sent out as gifts to friends and colleagues - this copy has a handwritten dedication "Stuart from Ian as always". VG+.

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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
8.8 x 10.2cm , 4pp black and red on white card.
The card lists twelve new names of the months of the year (much like the way the French Revolutionary calendar renamed the year. The names "Month of the Hurricane", "Month of the Snowman" mostly reflect the weather but there are also references to the events of 1793 but one line is printed in festive red "Month of the Pocket Battleship" which one may assume is the month around Christmas (this being a Christmas card). December is hence now the 4th month and a pocket battleship being a toy may be seen as a children's gift.,BR> This example of the card has a relatively long (for a small card) message from Finlay to Stuart (Mills?) "doesn't this card remind you a wee line of Old Times, even if it is not printed in 60's sepia? I thinkI made it especially for you. How are you? That rotten firm never answered my letter about their rotten clockwork boat. Love to all, your chum, Ian. 12.12.84". An insightful short missive. VG+.

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57 x 10 x 44cm, etched glass on custom made wooden stand. The concrete poem is made up of a number of anagrams of the word "DAZZLE" although the word itself is not found on the etched glass plate. This is an unique sculptural version of a poem first published in 1979 as an artist's book by Finlay. The Dazzle ships were battleships in the second world war where zigzag patterns were painted on the side to help camouflage the outlines of the vessel. By showing all of the mixed up letters but not the original word Finlay is creating a visual poem abstracting the real life boats. We do not know the date of this work - we suspect it is from the 1980s. In VG+ condition,...

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
21 x 21cm (unfolded size) , two-sided folding paper which turns into a paper dart - with a marbled pattern on one side.
The inner message is "THE MARBLE ARROW ALWAYS HITS ITS MARK!". Finlay has made this into a paper dart which is a weapon of sorts in the Little Spartan Wars. VG+.

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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984 23 x 18cm, 4pp card with 1pp 30 x 21cm insert. The announcement and artist's card for the re-opening of the Little Sparta Temple and Garden after Finlay closed it. The front of the card displays a painting by Gary Hincks of a watering can and a reference to the guillotining of the Robespierrists during the "month of Heat" (Arrosoir being the symbol of that month in the new revolutionary calendar).
The insert is A NOTE ON THE PRESENT SITUATION IN THE LITTLE SPARTAN WAR. An update by Finlay on the ongoing fight with the Strath=clyde region and that they had been granted a new summary warrant against the Garden Temple. Folded else VG+.

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Baden-Baden: Staatliche Kunsthalle, 1984
27 x 22.5cm, 92pp plus pictorial card covers. Exhibition catalogue for a large scale exhibition of Boltanski's photographic Compositions - starkly lit scenes where found models or brightly coloured hand-made puppets are displayed like dioramas. Additionally the artist creates roughly made puppets out of card board or household waste which are painted and the somewhat grotesque figurative works placed in darkness and highlighted by carefully placed lights.
Coloured images throughout and essays in German as well as an illustrated biography (which is similar to that found in other exhibition catalogues). Slight creases on the corner of the front cover but else VG+. This copy is signed in black felt tipped pen on the first half title page by Boltanski.

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London: Editions Schellmann & Kluser, 1984
21 x 15cm, 4pp announcement card with two works reproduced internally (Dead Stags from 1982 and Bath-Tub for a Heroine, 1984) internally, exhibition and gallery details on the front and back covers. VG+.

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N.p. (Heidelberg): Galerie Schellmann & Kluser, 1984 21 x 15cm, 4pp announcement card for an exhibition showing two early bronze sculptures by Beuys- "Ofen" from 1950 and Tierfrai from 1949. Both shown in b/w on the inside of the card. VG+. ...

Wuppertal: Stadtsparkasse Wuppertal, 1984 20cm x 20cm, 8pp. Announcement card a short essay in German and four b/w reproductions of drawings and a portrait of the artist. VG+. ...

Stuttgart: Galerie Brigitte March, 1983 11 x 15.5cm, printed card envelope doubling as exhibition invitation, content of two photos printed on glassine paper - both 13.4 x 18.4cm, Apocalisse nel deserto (by Agnetti) and Titus Andronicus / Iphigenie (by Beuys) Envelope stamped with oversized Hauptstrom rubber stamp impression (possibly offset printed). VG+....

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983
11.6 x 7.6cm , 10pp (single folded sheet printed on one side only) brown on white artist's card with two photographs by Andrew Griffiths of a tree that had recently been planted and another a fully grown - both have tree-column sculptures at their bases. The poem in the middle section reads:
A PLACEMENT
obeisance
and an excerpt from Finlay's "Detached Sentences on Gardening" which clarifies the idea that some items in a garden are like those of societies - some need to be fixed (in the sense of solidified) so that others can be placed (strategic decision-making).
The final section notes the Tree Column-Bases to be found in Little Sparta - one "Lycurge" and the other Saint-Just. The former was a Greek law-maker and the latter the stern deliverer of laws from the French Revolution. Finlay differentiates between the two by suggesting the Greek was more stable and civil while the latter more chaotic and dangerous. VG+.

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