EXHIBITION TOUR

Xaime Isla Couto (Compostela, 1915 – Vigo, 2012)

From an early age, he closely linked his life to Galicia through his involvement with the Seminario de Estudos Galegos, the Mocidades Galeguistas, the Ultreya group, and various initiatives in support of self-government.

After the war, he took part in the clandestine reorganisation of the Partido Galeguista. In 1950, he proposed the founding of a publishing house—Editorial Galaxia. From that moment on, he held various organisational positions within the company until his death, ultimately serving as its honorary president.

A professor at the School of Industrial Engineering and a legal adviser to the Caja de Ahorros de Vigo, Xaime nevertheless devoted time to editorial and political projects. Guided by his Christian faith, he participated in the founding of Editorial SEPT (1965), dedicated to the publication of religious literature in Galician.

His contribution to design has been unjustly overlooked. He was responsible for the corporate visual identity of Galaxia, the Penzol Foundation, SEPT, the Revista Galega de Economía, and Grial. In addition, he founded the Illa Nova collection (1957), created to showcase new literary generations and named after the union of his surname with that of his wife, Cristina Novoa.

A man of constant ideas, he showed a particular fondness for the pencil, as evidenced by the caricatures he produced, for instance, on the tables of the now-defunct Café Derby. In this exhibition, he is granted a space of his own as public recognition of this facet of his contribution to Galaxia’s design history.

The wall display also includes the four volumes designed by Luís Seoane for the Arte Novo collection (1954–1957), dedicated to Manuel Colmeiro, Xosé Eiroa, Carlos Maside, and Seoane himself.

Xohán Ledo (Ferrol, 1917 – Vigo, 2006)

Pseudonym of the doctor Ricardo García Suárez. Around 1950 he settled in Vigo, where he opened a private medical practice. He soon became involved in the Galician nationalist circles established in the city and frequented literary gatherings such as the one held at the Café Suevia, on Policarpo Sanz Street.

During the Republican period, he was a member of the Mocidades Galeguistas and, while still in training, took part in several campaigns organised by the Seminario de Estudos Galegos. As a result of reconnecting with old friends in Vigo, he began collaborating with Editorial Galaxia through drawing, painting, and design, serving as its artistic director.

Remembered for his good nature and discretion, he maintained close relationships with other painters associated with the publishing house, such as Carlos Maside and Luís Seoane. A loose line and distinctive illustration characterised the appearance of Galaxia’s earliest volumes. His working method was artisanal, relying on assemblages of clippings combined with other forms, akin to collage. In this exhibition section, each book belongs to a different collection.

He is regarded as one of the key figures in the renewal of Galician book aesthetics, alongside the efforts undertaken in exile by Luís Seoane. Galaxia owes to Ledo the painting depicting its first management board, as well as the earliest posters for the Día das Letras Galegas.

Francisco Mantecón (Vigo, 1948 – 2001)

From an early age, he displayed an abiding curiosity. At the age of twenty he exhibited his work in the Plaza de la Princesa, studied Fine Arts in Barcelona, and aligned himself with the avant-garde. In 1977 he returned to Vigo as a drawing teacher and took part in the founding of the Atlántica movement.

His relationship with Galaxia began in 1979, when Bieito Ledo became managing director of the publishing house. At that time, Mantecón shared a workspace with Manuel Janeiro at the Círculo Ourensano-Vigués, a key venue in the city’s sociocultural dynamism. The Mantecón–Janeiro duo was entrusted with renewing Galaxia’s visual identity.

Most of the works from this period bear joint authorship. After Carlos Casares joined the editorial management, both designers continued their collaboration with Galaxia, albeit along separate paths. Mantecón’s imprint is evident in the use of geometric figuration—mirroring his own artistic practice—and in the pursuit of clean, restrained covers.

He would later leave further examples of his work at Sotelo Blanco, Ir Indo, and Edicións Xerais, as well as in the covers of A Trabe de Ouro and the Anuario de Estudos Literarios Galegos. The Terras Gauda Poster Design Award was established in his memory.

The books shown in this section reflect both his collaborative work with Janeiro and his independent output. The themes revolve around the implementation of regional autonomy. The growing demand for books following the introduction of Galician into the education system prompted a significant advance in publishing production and, consequently, in design.

Manuel Janeiro (Madrid, 1951)

Illustrator, designer, and writer, associated with Galician culture since 1974. He combined his creative work with teaching at the Martín Codax School. His training in Educational Psychology and Image Semiotics was placed at the service of design practice.

His relationship with Galaxia began in 1979 alongside Francisco Mantecón, when Bieito Ledo assumed the management of the publishing house. The Janeiro–Mantecón tandem took on the challenge of aesthetic renewal. After several years of close collaboration, they each embarked on separate professional paths towards the end of the 1980s.

Janeiro was responsible for the company’s first change of logo: the stars positioned above, a curved line alongside the typography, and the book featured in the original imprint. He oversaw Galaxia’s graphic identity until 2013. Over this long period, he developed designs for numerous collections that remain in publication today.

His formal and conceptual experimentation in cover design distanced him from Xohán Ledo’s approach. Photographic composition, typographic variation, and a free use of space are among the defining features of his work, which would set a precedent for future editorial design.

All the books displayed in this section have received awards; this constitutes the selection criterion. It allows for an overview of different decades of work and a revisiting of some of Galaxia’s most emblematic titles.

Hayat Husein (Chimbote, Peru, 1976)

The current head of design at Editorial Galaxia joined the company in 2007 through Merlín Comunicación. Initially involved in exhibition projects, she gradually established her role before becoming fully integrated into Galaxia. Until 2013, she shared design and layout commissions with Manuel Janeiro, who concluded his collaboration with the publishing house that year.

Hayat’s training as a Senior Technician in Plastic Arts and Graphic Advertising Design took place amid profound social change marked by the advent of the internet and digital resources. The proliferation of image banks, software applications, and online design tools has opened up an almost limitless range of possibilities.

This abundance, however, entails the challenge of synthesis, of making the right choices, and of executing editorial design with precision. The search for suggestion in cover imagery—through subtle nuances that engage the viewer—underscores the value of the creative process.

Moreover, today the design of a book is the outcome of a series of negotiated agreements between management, authorship, and design. Yet this ménage à trois may well have always been inherent to the publishing world.

Classics in Galician

The translation of international literature into a language undergoing normalisation is essential. Of particular sociolinguistic significance is the translation into Galician of works not yet available in the dominant language, Castilian Spanish.

Galaxia was already aware of this factor in 1951, when it proposed translating Martin Heidegger’s Vom Wesen der Wahrheit into Galician under the title Da esencia da verdade. After securing publication permission and paying the rights directly to the author, the Franco regime opposed its publication solely on the grounds of its use of the Galician language. The book was eventually published in 1956, partly as a result of a complaint lodged with UNESCO concerning the persecution of the Galician language. Following this bold initiative, Galaxia persisted in its translation efforts, fully aware of their implicit value in enhancing linguistic prestige. European classics, children’s and young adult literature, and other major works of international literature would subsequently appear in Galician.

In this regard, two collections merit particular attention. On the one hand, Clásicos en Galego (1989–), which includes works by Greco-Roman authors such as Sophocles, Ovid, and Cicero; and on the other, Clásicos Universais, featuring a broad range of international authors from all periods, including Shakespeare, Goethe, Dostoevsky, Baudelaire, and Edgar Allan Poe.

In 2014, the Galician translation of Ulysses by James Joyce received the National Translation Award from the Spanish Ministry of Culture. The work was the result of a collective effort by María Alonso Seisdedos, Eva Almazán, Xavier Queipo, and Antón Vialle.

Children’s Literature

Galaxia began publishing children’s books in the second half of the 1960s with a collection entitled A Galea de Ouro, composed primarily of translations. Xohana Torres was among those responsible for this work, translating various titles from Catalan.

A key title from this period is A galiña azul (1968) by Carlos Casares, illustrated by Xohán Ledo. From this point onward, the production of children’s books written in Galician—and by Galician authors—began to develop gradually, notably within the Tartaruga collection, featuring writers such as Bernardino Graña, Delgado Rodríguez, Palmira Boullosa, and Antonio García Teijeiro.

Over the years, charismatic characters emerged, such as Toribio, alongside collections like A Chalupa, which would later give way to music-accompanied albums (Sonárbore) and illustrated works (Árbore).

As for young adult literature, special mention should be made of the Costa Oeste collection and the Galician versions of classic authors such as Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes, as well as contemporary works including Corto Maltese and Harry Potter.