BRISTOL.- This exhibition presents works, with a special focus on his printed projects, by Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925 –2006), one of the most prominent post-­‐war British artists. Finlay was a poet and artist. His sculptures, stone works and neon signs combined language and landscape, and expanded the idea of how words can be used and distributed. Initially associated with concrete poetry, he was above all a publisher, founding Wild Hawthorn Press in 1961, which produced a great many publications, often very small in scale. The ephemeral nature of these poem cards, lithographs and booklets was intentional, and Finlay understood publishing as an ongoing process of exchange.

Along with an extensive selection of Finlay’s published works, prints and posters, magazines and books, the exhibition presents a series of interventions by contemporary artists and writers, including Will Holder and Christian Flamm, who reflect the artist’s ongoing influence today. This will culminate in a weekend of events at the end of the exhibition including performances, readings, talks and discussion. The exhibition also includes a series of six sculptures by Finlay in
the grounds of the music venue, St George’s Bristol as an offsite project, which was installed permanently in 2002.

Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925 –2006) was a poet, writer and artist. Most of his printed works were published through his own Wild Hawthorn Press, founded in 1961, together with Jessie McGuffie. As a sculptor, he has worked collaboratively in a wide range of materials, including stone, bronze, wood, and nean signs. His most expansive project was a sculpture garden named Little Sparta, which he started, together with his wife, Sue Finlay, in 1966 at the hillside farm of Stonypath, south-­‐west of Edinburgh.