Manchester: PN Review, 1983
29.5 x 21cm, 64pp plus wrappers. A single number of this poetry and literature review - here with a major article with 45 small b/w photographs and an anonymous text by (probably by Finlay). Useful and interesting documentation. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press (?), Friday 17 June 1983
21 x 30cm, 2pp black on off-white newsprint. A parody newspaper with humorous articles about the dispute between Strathclyde Region and Ian Hamilton Finlay over rates for the Garden temple at Little Sparta. Spurious claims of Little Sparta having a "secret weapon: the "Tucker Gun" based on a 19060s abstract sculpture by WIlliam Tucker. The act of postering the Scottish Arts Council building is also reported on with an image of one of the posters gummed onto the columns outside the building. US troops are also reported to have landed in the Pentland Hills and are "preparatory to advancing into Strathclyde Region" and "taking over key points such as...
Edinburgh: Graeme Murray Gallery, 1983
20.2 x 12.7cm, 96pp and white wrappers and printed cream dust jacket
Artist's book with images of 20 small table top sculptures by Finlay along with quotations that explain the works. VG+.
...
Leeds: New Arcadians Press, 1983
11 x 16cm, printed purple envelope with title and publication information content of two cards.
The first card is:
2 PROSPECTS.
8.3 x 10.9cm 6pp (asymmetric folds). A folding card which has two drawings by Ian Gardner which reflect the shape of each other. The first is a slope on a battle ship's deck, the second a slope on a hill with a house and a tree. The "elevation" of the guns to the deck and the "elevation" of the house to the tree are mathematically compared to each other in the diagram.
Two quotes one by Horace Walpole and the other John James note the evolution of "Ha! Ha!s" in gardening - places where the ground drops away suddenly and allows unimpeded access to the grounds. On a battleship the slope in front of a gun allows the missile to be projected without opposition.
The card may be a typical Finlay work bringing attention to a comparison or metaphor between two things but given the on-going feeling of conflict and being under attack at Little Sparta at this time - the card is also a threat to those attacking the elevations of the grounds.
The second card is
THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO
10 x 13cm, 2pp and a duotone photograph of the the Temple of Apollo (aka Garden Temple) - the building that Finlay disputed the rating value of and the heart of the dispute between him and the Regional Council.
Both cards are VG+.
Murray's flawed catalogue raisonne only notes the first card and does not note it was part of a pair or that it was published by someone other that the Wild Hawthorn Press. it appears these cards were published at the same time as an exhibition at Southhampton Art Gallery.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983
19.7 x 12.7cm (closed size), 4pp gatefold. A mail art work by Finlay which opens up to read "SHOCK TROPES FOR LITTLE SPARTA" - the literary equivalent of the blitzkrieg, "Tropes" replacing "Troops".
This example was mailed by Finlay to Graeme Murray his then gallerist, Franked and stamped but VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1983)
21 x 29.5 cm, 1pp offset lithograph printed red and black on cream paper each with a text by Finlay:
TERROR IS THE PIETY OF THE REVOLUTION.
VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1996)
A portfolio of three 25 x 20cm, 4pp offset lithographs - the paper colour of each being important to the meaning of the work.
The first sheet opens to read "Watteau's clown" and is on beige paper.
The second sheet opens to read "Picasso's acrobats" and is on light blue paper.
The third sheet opens to read "The wind shadow cast by this blue sail" and is on dark blue paper.
The three reference paintings and the dominant colour of the pallet....
Aisbach: Verlaggaleria Leaman, n.d. (1982 or 1983)
Printed plastic and card folder with metal ring binder. Content of individual contributions and multiples by a wide range of artists (many from the fields of conceptual art, visual poetry and some of the Fluxus- affiliated artists). Paik here contributes 4pp offset reproductions of his sketchy drawings 'Moon is reaction to sun'; Knowles a map of 'bean troubles'; Finlay's work is 'Twin-sets', Cobbin has two fold-outs 'Triptych five' and 'Triptych six'; Michael Drucks a lithograph (Xerox) in plastic folder; Ruhm a numbers work: 'Zeitgedicht' from 1981 and Tot: a work on public demonstations complete with German police permission letter for a demonstration. Crozier's contribution is a series of drawings (Xerox). Scarce. VG+.
...
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, (1982)
13 x 25.2cm, 8pp plus card wrappers and printed white dust jacket.
Artist's book with two drawings of the Japanese planes trying to return to their aircraft carrier which is on fire as a result most had to crash into the seas and the pilots drown. The quotation is "The last honey by the water that no hive can find." from Austin Clarke's The Cattledrive in Connaught" 1925. The Clarke quotation has its flaws - it is the bee that seeks the pollen not the hive so the line is rather reversed but Finlay ignores that (as he does in other publications such as the Black Sparrow Press, publication also of 1982 called "Honey by the water." VG+.
...
Middelburg: De Vleeshal, 1982
10.5 x 15 cm card cover content of an 8pp accordion folded card which opens out to 10.5 x 60cm and displays a toy ship sailing during a cardboard cut-out heavy storm.
The images are taken from a Boltanski shadow play installation. The first edition of this delightful artist's book which was issued in a limited edition of only 250 copies of which only c.150 reached the market (personal research after meeting the publisher). Fine.
Ref: Flay Boltanski Catalogue Page 152.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983
Two folding cards.
The first card is
ARBOR FELICE ARBOR PHILHELLENE
9.3 x 11.7cm, 1pp green on white. A four sided stand up to create a geometric form of tree trunk with the text "ARBOR FELICE ARBOR PHILHELLENE". One translation is "The tree "suckles you" you lover of Greeks" (our flawed translation) but there are other alternatives it seems. VG+
The second card is
THE BIRCH TREE RECALLS YOU O PHILHELLENES
11.6 x 14cm, 1pp green on white. A four sided stand up to create a geometric form of tree trunk with the title text. Again praise for those who praise the Greeks. Birch trees only just grow on the northern borders of Greece and also in colder, higher areas.
These two card sculptures are paired - and there are large scale tree plaques by Finlay that also bear the inscriptions and are expected to be exhibited/installed together. VG+.
...
Dunsyre, : Wild Hawthorn Press, (1982)
7.5 x 9.5cm, 12pp plus card wrappers and printed pink dust jacket.
Artist's book with two drawings by Ian Gardner - one entitled The Orgy of The Cherries - where the stalks and stones are scattered and L'Idylle de Cerises where the cherries are uneaten and the stalks still attached. The L'Idylle de Cerises is a reference from a chapter heading from Rousseau's Les Confessions. Cherries are associated with sexual pleasure and Rousseau mentions them in a context of mild desire. The book (printed on pink to reflect the colour of the fruit) shows the detritus of cherry eating - with all the stones scattered - as a metaphor for an orgy when all the participants are exhausted and strewn across the bed. VG+.
...