Paper and Water: A Guide for Conservators

This is the first compendium for conservation professionals involved in the preservation of paper artifacts in archives, libraries and fine art museums around the world. The global team of expert authors explain the principal interactions between paper and water, a topic of primary importance for every conservator working with paper artifacts and other cellulose-based materials. The work integrates knowledge from the different disciplines of paper engineering, conservation science and conservation practice, and will serve as a textbook in a rapidly expanding profession that has virtually no customized education literature.

Water is present when paper is made. It contributes to its deterioration and serves many essential functions when deteriorated paper is treated by conservators. Drawing on paper industry and science research, Paper and Water examines the relationship between paper and water. Throughout the book, theoretical information concerning basic principles that underlie the interaction of paper and water is presented in close association with practical information that informs the reader about mechanisms that govern conservation procedures.

Topics discussed in the book include: structure and properties of dry and wet paper; structure and properties of water; paper production steps relevant to the interaction between paper and water; influence of humid climate conditions on the deterioration of paper; principles of aqueous deacidification; preparation and use of aqueous solutions, methods of treating paper with water, as well as factors influencing their effectiveness; mechanisms of drying paper during its production; methods of drying paper in conservation; historical and ethical dimensions of aqueous treatment in paper conservation.

Taking its inspiration from undergraduate and graduate science education textbooks, and tested widely through use in workshops with students and specialist professionals in both Europe and USA, this book is highly illustrated to make learning an efficient and pleasurable experience. Visual material exclusively produced for this publication includes video animations, laboratory videos, and key references which appear on an accompanying DVD. Each chapter in the book and video on the DVD are linked, but can also function independently.

Several authors contributed to the manuscript, among them Dr Vincent Daniels, Research Fellow, Royal College of Art, London; Professor D Steven Keller, Associate Professor, Paper Science and Engineering, SUNY-College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, New York; Joanna Kosek MA, Acting Head, Western Pictorial Art, The British Museum, London; Dr Anthony W. Smith, Camberwell College of Art, London; and Professor Paul Whitmore, Director, Research Center on the Materials of the Artist and Conservator, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA. Videos and Animations are by Professor Alfred Vendl, and Stefan Fischer, Technical Chemistry - Science Visualisation, Institute for Art and Technology at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.

The project and the book are financially supported by the Leonardo da Vinci Programme, European Union, and by a prestigious Conservation Publication Grant of the H. Samuel Kress Foundation provided through the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. 'Paper and Water' is supported internationally by the Institute for Paper Conservation (IPC); the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM); and International Association of Book and Paper Conservators (IADA).