When we browse the facsimile editions of the hand-written books by Joaquín Torres García -Foi; Père soleil; Ce que je sais, et que je fais par moi même; Raison et nature, La tradición del hombre abstracto; La ciudad sin nombre- a notable co-existence of writing signs and figurative graph signs is manifest.

None of them dominates: the text is not illustrated by graphic language, it does not visually repeat the written words, but both constantly inter-twine.

Hand-written text, drawn with fountain pen on rough paper, participates of plastics when it adopts a variety of sizes and positions on the page. In this way it breaks with composition of parallel lines, regular spacing between characters and lines, in summary, all that normalization brought about by the alphabetic culture of books, which stresses page homogeneity, space economy and linearity.

Torres García achieves a translation of elements, typical of oral communication; he changes the size and stresses or attenuates some words or passages of the text, the way a speaker would do with voice inflections. At the same time, represented objects, changed into abstract and geometrical signs, become pictorial writing. Undergoing such reductionism, drawing liberates from perspective laws to play just on the plane of the page.

These pictographic signs overlap, interfere, dialog with writing, in the form of gestures, alternating continuities and loss of continuities according to the needs dictated by contents, emancipating the reader of all discrimination between text and images.

Plastic and ideograph aspects of the sign and conceptual aspects of written words behave as if they were complementary and extraneous at the same time. Every one follows its own discourse, but both converge in a perceptive unity resulting in a blast of meaning.

Based on Miguel Battegazzore's book: Joaquín Torres-García: la trama y los signos (Montevideo: Impresora Gordon, 1999; pages 161 & 162).

Facsimile editions of hand-written books

Of the 25 hand-written books by Torres-García, in unique binding editions, handcrafted by Torres himself, only seven have been published up to the present time, all of them in facsimile edition. There follows the list with dates when the books were written, and the particulars of the first editions.

1. FOI.
Book dated by the author in Paris, 5 January 1930. Written in French. First edition: it has neither references nor foot-notes of the publishing house. In the inner face of cover it reads "1931". Format: 14 x 11 cm 34 not numbered pages. [It is a recent edition, probably prepared in Montevideo.]

2. CE QUE JE SAIS, ET CE QUE JE FAIS PAR MOI MÊME.
Book dated 5 September 1930 in Losones [Switzerland]. Written in French. First Edition: Torres-García Foundation, Montevideo, 1974. Format 21.5 x 19 cm 36 not numbered pages.

3. PÉRE SOLEIL.
Book dated by the author in Paris, 29 July 1931. Written in French. First edition: Torres-García Foundation, Montevideo, 1974. Format 17 x 12.5 cm, 72 not numbered pages.

4. RAISON ET NATURE: THÉORIE.
Book dated by the author in Paris, May 1932. Written in French. First edition: Torres-García Foundation, Montevideo, 1954. Format 25.5 x 19.5 cm, 46 not numbered pages [Despite on the cover it reads "Editions Imán Paris 1932", the book was never published during the author's lifetime.

5. LA TRADICIÓN DEL HOMBRE ABSTRACTO (Doctrina constructivista). Book dated by the author in: Montevideo, October 1938. Written in Spanish. First Edition: Publications of the AAC, Montevideo, 1938. (Lacaño Hnos. Impresores) Format 20.5 x 15. 5 cm, 78 not numbered pages.

6. LA CIUDAD SIN NOMBRE.
Book dated by the author in: Montevideo, 16 December 1941. Written in Spanish. First Edition: Publications of the AAC, Montevideo, 1941. (Impresora LIGU) Format 15 x 11. 5 cm, 106 not numbered pages.

7. LA REGLA ABSTRACTA.
Book dated by the author in: Montevideo, 5 February 1946. Included in: NUEVA ESCUELA DE ARTE EN EL URUGUAY. Pintura y arte constructivo. Contribución al arte de las tres Américas. First Edition: AAC, Montevideo, 1946. (Talleres LIGU). Format 33.5 x 24.5 cm, 16 numbered pages.