earthship

A fine example of Ian Hamilton Finlay's early large paper sculpture 'Earthship', complete with the original enclosure, a printed card shoebox by Alistair Cant.

From the edition of unknown size but likely limited to fewer than 50 examples.

A larger number of copies of the sheets for 'earthship' were printed than copies of Cant's shoebox enclosure and it is thought that approximately 20 copies were issued with the box.Finlay's text, running from conjoined sheet to conjoined sheet reads as follows: 'fin / funnel / eye / hold / bow / stern / star / number / root / branch / sail / sap / screw / ihf'.

'Luxury boxes continue to be made to protect artists' books and are often designed as part of the book. Ian Hamilton Finlay has playfully subverted this tradition with this printed box for 'Earthship', published by his Wild Hawthorn Press in 1965. Its concrete poetry in the organic form of stapled silkscreen sheets can only be constrained, protected, posted and titled by its printed illustrated cardboard box.' (Bodleian Library catalogue).

'The paper sculpture consists of curved white cards, stapled in a line, and printed with a large bold typeface, which form words along the length of the sculpture:‘finfunneleyeholdbowsternstarnumberrootbranchsailsapscrew’. Earthship was posted in a specially designed and printed box, and is very limited in number, usually said to be 50. More card sets were printed than boxes, so there were possibly some examples sent out in ordinary boxes.' (Mark Todhunter).

Although 'earthship' is well represented in institutional terms - we trace 4 copies in the UK and 11 in the US - it is scarce on the market and we locate only a single copy at auction (and that without the box) in the last fifty years.

[Sotheran's Finlay 65].