About The Book

In celebration of the centenary of artist, poet and landscape designer Ian Hamilton Finlay’s birth, Fragments presents 100 of his most noteworthy artworks.

In celebration of the centenary of artist, poet and landscape designer Ian Hamilton Finlay’s birth, Fragments draws together 100 of his artworks. With each piece accompanied by a short text, either by the artist or by a noted writer on Finlay’s work, this book accompanies a series of eight exhibitions taking place in Basel, Brescia, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Palma de Mallorca, London, New York and Vienna in May 2025.

Best known for his Little Sparta – a seven-acre site at Stonypath farm in Scotland that has attained almost-mythical status – and for his installed guillotines, A View to the Temple, at Documenta Kassel 1987, Finlay’s large body of work can be found in museums, parks and gardens worldwide. His artistic creations also incorporate short stories, poems and concrete poetry, many of which have been published by his own publishing house Wild Hawthorn Press, and which, with a mixture of wit and beauty, engage with the relationship between violence and civilization.

Product Details

  • Publisher: ACC Art Books (May 6, 2025)
  • Length: 236 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781788842938

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Raves and Reviews

"Engaging with history as well as wordplay and themes of power, Finlay’s work presented an innovative, malleable approach to language and the written word, which has influenced what art can be and accomplish."

artnet, Exhibition review

"‘Fragments’ – a celebration of Ian Hamilton Finlay’s life and work – is both a major new book published by ACC Art Books on 8 May, as well as centenary exhibitions at Victoria Miro, 30 April–24 May, Ingleby Gallery, 3 May– 14 June, and six other international galleries in Europe and the USA, curated and edited by Pia Maria Simig."

World of Interiors

"Words and ideas are as one – and at war – in Finlay’s witty, elegant work..."

The Guardian

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