The Aesthetics of Book Conservation
By Gary Frost
A lecture sponsored by the
Brodsky Endowment for the Advancement of Library Conservation
Friday, November 3rd, 2006
[click on images to enlarge]
Nature of the Art
Of all the artful approaches to the book, the art of the book conservator is
particularly obscure. It is an enclave art with a peculiar finesse for the handle
and appearance of historical craft work and a stylistic sensitivity to cultures
and book environments across time. To add to its strangeness, the creativity
of this art is suppressed by prescribed treatment practice and, contrary to
artistic convention, the practice promotes its own invisibility and anonymity.
Finally, it is probable that this strange art is crucial to the treatment outcome
while it secretly inspires the book conservator.
In her book, No Longer Innocent: Book Art in America 1960-1980, Betty
Bright refers to the work of the book conservator as a "byway in book art".
Her reference is to art works informed by the practice of book conservation
and made by book conservators, but there is an even less apparent artistic genre
inside the practice of book conservation which is that of artful book conservation
treatments.
I have often imagined that there can be deliberate recognition of artful book
conservation treatments and some definition of an aesthetic to guide practice.
Its an alluring prospect because exemplary book conservation work looks beautiful
and handles wonderfully and provides a quietly exciting experience.
Does an art of book conservation align with any of the categories so extensively
described in Betty Bright's wonderful book? The heritage of book production
arts are involved, but ambiguously. While the book conservation field values
the regimes of craft apprenticeship, it is also suspicious of commercial methods.
Likewise relations with aesthetics of the private press, the deluxe book publication
and the array of multiple and unique book works produced by artists, are a mixture
of respect and irrelevance.
On one theme there is deep accord. When Bright concludes that the question
underlying the history of artists' books is, "Why the book?", the
book conservator is ready to respond. For the book conservator each book examined
and each treatment completed extends an understanding of the inexhaustible resource
of qualities and aesthetic challenges posed by the book format. Add to this
the interpretive future of a given book as it passes from the hands of a book
conservator, across into the hands of the reader.
Betty Bright concludes her book with this graceful expression; "Imagine
the absorbed reader at the point when a turning page reaches the height of its
arch. At this pause, the reader inhabits a space of emotion and intellectual
readiness, one full of question, possibility, and anticipation." The book
conservator imagines this episode multiplied and sees the book itself as the
live mechanism that conveys conceptual works across time and cultures and through
the hands of all its readers. This power of imagination of the book conservator
is an artful contribution to the art of the book.
Four Aesthetics
I remember specific statements of book conservators, seemingly made off-hand.
I am beginning to realize that these were expressions of a fundamental aesthetic
approach to the work. Let's take these at face value to derive working expressions
of an aesthetics of book conservation.
"I am involved in conservation to preserve the unique character of an age."
Chris Clarkson 1
"Authenticity cannot be restored." Paul Banks 2
"Don't let it get lumpy. Don't fidget, do everything directly."
Don Etherington 3
"Make it flow!" Peter Waters 4
Unique Character
"At its best, craftsmanship in conservation is not simply a skillful use
of tools and materials, but a knowledge and sympathy for the volume and the
period of its production." Familiarity must breed the opposite of contempt
in the book conservator. The book conservator meets each book with an expectation
of some message.
The book conservator meets each book with an expectation of some message from
a past era and from an ecology of the world of artifacts. This is a twist on
the theme of the paratext and it does extend the aesthetic performance of books.
The book conservator looks for the evidences of deteriorations, survival and
vintage scenes embedded in the artifact as an inherent content. The book conservator's
forensic also extends to signage of previous makers of the book, literally re-watching
the motions of stitches, folder scores, gloving of covers or deft snipping of
corner miters. The careful book opening and closing manipulations of the book
conservator are somewhat slow motion because of this quiet, small drama.
The classical "before and after" contrast reveals the character of
the treatment. Following treatment the appearance is where much of the outcome
is assessed. The intent is an elegant ordinary appearance with a timeless quality.
Such an aesthetic of the ordinary conveyed by an attractive yet omissive appearance
is an inviting artistic challenge. The unremarkable appearance of one binding
among others goes unnoticed though all but one dates from the17th century.
Don't Fidget
Decisive speed exemplifies experienced craft work. The practice needs only
a few tools; a bone folder, sanding stick and cutting out knife and the book
conservator will work gracefully and accurately with an elegant, syncopated
speed.
The work should not be "lumpy", tedious, precious or angst ridden.
Fidgeting with innumerable surgical and dental tools is an indicator of crippled
technique. The book conservator must bring a choreography and spirit of dance
to the treatment providing a refreshing kinesiology for the old and tired book
The book conservator's prescribed treatment methods should stifle creativity,
but the choice of treatment methods does not. In fact specification is the first
step in treatment and that step offers aesthetic as well as technical choices.
A less disruptive, more reversible, simple and speedy treatment is easier to
apply, easier to practice and easier to achieve finesse in technique.
Authenticity vs. Treatment
Book conservation is justified by balancing the disruption of treatment against
damage projected if a physically and chemically vulnerable artifact is continued
in use. Certain materials deserve protection from disruption and re-fabrication.
When undertaken, treatment processes should be relatively reversible. The story
that the book has to offer should be told by the artifact, not by the conservator.
An affectation of our own culture is a preference for clean copy over dirty
original. The book conservator must meet this culture bias and others. Advocates
for digital surrogates and screen based presentation of print books must be
engaged by the conservator whenever the status of the original is in question.
This very difficult course must convey the continuing role of the original in
the context of digital delivery. Two useful contentions are that all meaning
resides in the original and that meaning in the original always awaits further
discovery and unknowable future queries.
Make it Flow
The book conservator is a restorer of mobility and without that result the
work is ugly. A haptic aesthetic motivates the conservator. With effective transmission
of forces and pliant response to handling, the book will protect or conserve
itself.
An achievement of supple book action is rather invisible to the library reader,
but this characteristic is deliberately achieved by the book conservator. The
protective, supple and pliant action enables older books to survive photocopying
or scanning, exhibition and general mishandling by the modern reader. A rejuvenated
flexibility and a rejuvenated transmission of opening and closing motions aesthetically
distinguish the curative conservation treatment of a previously crippled book
action. Such action is only partly assured by appropriate structure; thoughtful
mending and thoughtful application of adhesive and thoughtful integration of
original and supplied materials are also required. The result, when achieved,
provides an aesthetic gratification, augmented by a practical satisfaction.
The conservator alone may appreciate the result and convey it in the completed
repair or rebinding with a pride in its mobility as a crucial result not apparent
in outward appearances.
A Fifth Aesthetic of Book Conservation
At first is seems that the book conservator must only preserve the past. But
the book conservator must also assure the future. Currently the future of the
paper book is being challenged by more than physical deterioration. Books are
now also at risk from search engines that dissolve bibliographic integrity,
from on-line research methods that side step library classification systems
and from information technology and communication agendas that discount scholarly
needs.
The book conservator can play only a small part of the advocacy for print in
the context of digital communications and screen based reading. But the conservator
can play a specific and critical role. The conservator can counter the churn
of transmission technologies by clarifying the attributes of print; attributes
of legibility, haptic efficiency and persistence that easily identify the traditional
book as the most advanced technology for reliable transmission of conceptual
works across time and cultures.
1 – Chris Clarkson presented aesthetic principles of
book conservation through his elegant drawings of books and their structures,
through his alluring publications, including the classical film on the production
of limp vellum bindings, and through his captivating lectures. Clarkson has
defined restorative treatment and the thoughtful attitude needed to recreate
graceful mobility and useful pliancy in abused books. His investigation and
specification of the limp vellum structure for use in book conservation is a
classic of the practice as well as its aesthetic guideline.
2 – Paul Banks' (1934-2000) artistic influence was conveyed
from his own instruction in book production and book design at Viking Press
and Clark & Way in New York City and in library preservation with Carolyn
Horton. He developed his Newberry Library book conservation program within a
context of Chicago book production trades and crafts. Important influences were
the Extra Bindery at the R.R.Donnelly & Sons Company, the Caxton Club, The
Kner & Anthony Bindery and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago which
provided bookbinding instruction for art students. Conveying these influences
together, he exemplified an artistic complexity inherent in book and library
conservation.
3 – Learning and appreciating the skills of trade binding
production, Don Etherington crossed a bridge to the world of book conservation
to become an advocate for elegant book treatment technique. His series of Standards
programs for the Guild of Book Workers exemplifies his aesthetic of synthesis
of craft, science and art.
4– Peter Waters (1930-2003) grounded his aesthetic in
classical music and book arts at the Royal College of Art. His work with Roger
Powell founded the methods for rebinding of manuscripts. Peter also instilled
elegance in such intractable productions as the polyester encapsulation and
the computer generated book label. He illuminated an aura of living arts of
the book with in an administrative bureaucracy of the Library of Congress.
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