Elisa Barros
Atelier du Papier. Paper and Books Conservator
Case study: Japanese books restoration
We, out of curiosity and as an experiment, asked an AI program (Chat GPT) how AI could help paper restorers. We received many interesting responses, but most were about scanning books/images. However, the materiality of the books remains to be addressed. Old printed books and their support (paper) suffer over time, due to the way they are used or stored. Due to my mission and my expertise, I am especially interested in the materialities/deterioration of the book, and the way in which it can be preserved and restored. In a previous presentation I introduced my studio and how I work with damaged Japanese books. I showed different possibilities of treatments and materials that restorers use in the restoration and/or conservation of books. This time, I want to focus my research and my practices on a very specific problem. As is very often the case, we find holes made by insects in our collections of Japanese books. I will present a case study with 6 different possibilities (such as adding fibers manually, adding fibers by machine, by doubling, etc.). All these possibilities will be demonstrated, analyzed and discussed in terms of feasibility in relation to the conservation of books/collections.