‘Hovis' - a word poem of very economical means. Finlay's poetic experimentation in the 1960’s co-incided with the rise of miminalism in American art. He was interested in this, and in some ways his experiments with ‘concrete’ poetry can be seen as a literary expression of the same pared down aesthetic, although with the added ingredient of form echoing meaning. By and large the poetry establishment didn’t agree with him – his idea of the one word poem was especially ridiculed – how could you have such a thing… one word alone doesn’t allow any possibility for metaphor or simile, there’s literally no other words to rub up against, but Ian countered by claiming that of course you can have a one word poem – just give it a title.

‘Hovis' is typical of the light touch that often appears in Finlay's work, despite the layers of reference. Every so often a work comes along which simplifies itself to such an extent that the visual joke stands alone. 'Hovis' is a good example. The form of the loaf shaped 'Hovis' is a play on the history of 20th century minimal art, but it is also a one word ‘concrete’ (or in this case brick) poem in its most literal sense.

Finlay originally made (approximately) 100 of these bricks in 1990, with the ceramicist David Ballantyne. They were conceived as individual ‘loaves’, but Finlay originally chose to display them gathered together in a stack comprised of 96 bricks. This was subsequently dismantled, and in 2023, in celebration of Ingleby Gallery’s 25th birthday, the artists’ executor Pia Maria Simig decided to offer the bricks as an edition of 100 individual works.