Nature Over Again: The Garden Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay

199 Pages·2009·5.76 MB·English

by  John Dixon-Hunt

NATURE OVER AGAIN
John Dixon Hunt

nature over again

NATURE OVER AGAIN
The garden art of Ian Hamilton Finlay
john dixon hunt
reaktion books
Published by Reaktion Books Ltd
33Great Sutton Street
London ec1v 0dx, uk
www.reaktionbooks.co.uk
First published 2008
Copyright © John Dixon Hunt 2008
Reproduction of Ian Hamilton Finlay artworks by courtesy of the Artist’s Estate.
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Designed by Ron Costley
Printed and bound in Singapore
by Craft Print International Ltd
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Hunt, John Dixon
Nature over again : the garden art of Ian Hamilton Finlay
1. Finlay, Ian Hamilton 2. Gardens 3. Gardens - Design
I. Title
712.6'092
isbn:978 1 86189 393 2
For Emily
Friendship is inclination, acquaintance is geography
ian hamilton finlay,
‘Detached Sentences on Friendship’, 1991

Contents
Preamble 11
1 Words of a dead poet . . . 15
2 Garden matters: ‘a tangible image . . . ’ 18
3 From page to garden 23
4 Detached sentences 38
5 Fragments, excerpts & incompletions 43
6 Inscriptions 59
7 ‘Spaces full of doubt’ 75
8 ‘ . . . the hideous process of secularization’ 82
9 Mare nostrum 88
10 Et in Arcadia Ego 94
11 [Neo-]classical landscapes 100
12 Revolutions 109
13 Errata, or recovered in translation 120
14 ‘Mower is Less’ 137
15 A solid place 142
16 Gardens matter 148
Appendix 177
References 183
Acknowledgements 195
Photo Acknowledgements 197
1 ‘Nuclear Sail’ seen across
the Lochan, Little Sparta.
2 The obelisk dedicated
to Claude Lorrain at the
Upper Pool, Little Sparta.