A bullet can penetrate to a depth of about 350 pages, according to one of the combatants who used incunabula, encyclopaedias and even Bibles as shields from enemy fire in the trenches on the front line of the Philosophy and Humanities Faculty in Ciudad Universitaria. The works of Voltaire, Goethe, Cervantes and other greats were piled up in the faculty windows as makeshift barricades and, during the lulls, were read by the soldiers and International Brigade members who were defending besieged Madrid from the rebel forces.

The 350 páginas [350 Pages] project revolves around the books that, in November 1936, were moved from library shelves on the newly built university campus of Ciudad Universitaria to faculty doorways and windows, becoming defensive barriers in one of the first battles of the Spanish Civil War. One year later, some of those volumes were retrieved from under the rubble by volunteer soldiers and librarians. Thanks to their efforts, today we are able to appreciate their value as unique editions and their contents, but also as unusual testaments to one of the most terrible episodes in Spanish history. The Battle of Madrid is shown to us through tears and holes in books that were given a radically new purpose, where the width of their spines mattered more than the knowledge they contained. I was able to photograph the war wounds of these volumes at the historical library of the Universidad Complutense, where they are kept. While I was there, Javier Tacón, head of the conservation and restoration department, told me that they had been restored without repairing any of the damage inflicted by shrapnel or other factors during the conflict, and that consequently they are treated not just as one-of-a-kind books but as archaeological artefacts. The marks of their history, our history, must be preserved like ancient fossils. I find it fascinating to think that these battered tomes maintained their original function, as they were read amid bullet shells and shrapnel. We often say that a book can change your life, but in this case a book could literally save it.

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Installation views of the 350 páginas exhibition at the Fine Arts Faculty gallery, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria campus. © Photos by Mismo Visitante.