Between 1993 and 2006, Robin Gillanders made photographs of Ian Hamilton Finlay’s garden, ‘Little Sparta’ at Stonypath near Biggar in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.Throughout that period, he also collaborated with Finlay on several of his artist’s books, posters, and cards, and they gradually became close friends, up until Finlay’s death in 2006.As a Concrete Poet, Finlay is widely recognised as one of the most significant artists in the UK in the mid to late 20th Century, while art historian Sir Roy Strong has said of Little Sparta that it is "the only really original garden made in this country since 1945".
