Preventing Conservation

Oh but do I love Recent Setbacks in Conservation.

Here are some abstracts:

Conservation of the Journal of the American Institute for
Conservation: results of a survey and treatments by Jeff Peachey

The preservation and conservation of the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation(JAIC) is perhaps one of the most vexing and complex problems in all of conservation. Three times a year, these journals arrive with bent corners, torn covers, water damage and, in one case, fire damage. Today’s successful conservator in private practice must be image conscious – after all, what respectable lawyer has his shelves adorned with tattered paper covers? Gold-stamped leather spines mean something. They mean power and money and wealth and fame, all the things conservators secretly crave while spending all day surface cleaning some ruined, worthless, meaningless piece of paper. But I digress. I have lost more than one client, running from my studio, clutching their priceless Victorian Bible after merely glancing at the condition of my JAIC collection. I felt I might not be alone in dealing with this problem, therefore humbly decided to publish the results of this survey and some of the treatments I performed in an attempt to deal with this important, difficult problem.

SALVAGING PHOTO DOCUMENTATION by Dr. Derfliw E’ Neerg
Institute for Institutional Advancement

A method is described for salvaging both photo documentation, and careers in conservation. I can’t see the point of all these damned abstracts! Why don’t you just read the bloody paper? Or is that too hard?