Photo by Stephanie Damoff
Book Conservation
Wear, damage, and deterioration manifest in multiple ways: loose joints, detached boards, missing spine strip or endcaps, cracked joints or hinges, torn or detached pages, red-rotting leather, bowing parchment, cracked spine. Sometimes even a prior repair, however well intentioned, can cause—or itself be—a form of damage. All of these issues prevent the safe handling of a book and can affect its value.
Whatever care your book needs—whether it’s cleaning, tape removal, boards or pages reattached, tears closed, plates tipped back in, rebacking, or other forms of treatment—we will work with you to determine the best course of action. Our goal is to stabilize and repair both structural and material damage in an aesthetically sensitive manner, addressing your priorities for the book’s future while adhering to ethical conservation standards, and advising you on best practices for safe handling, housing, and storage.
A book with a missing or damaged spine strip, or split joints, may be repaired by applying new material to replace what’s been lost and support what remains. In the process of a reback, the text block spine is exposed, so damage to that area, including split spine folds and broken sewing, may be addressed as well.
Reback
Sometimes a book’s loose or separated boards may be reattached without disturbing the spine. This may also be the preferred treatment if the spine is at risk of damage during the process of repair. Each book is assessed individually to determine whether a board reattachment or full reback is the best course of action.
Board reattachment
A book’s case or even its binding may be intact, but opening the book may reveal that its endpaper hinges have split or even that the case has separated entirely from the text block. Repairing this damage ensures that the book’s structure remains sound for future use.
Hinge Repair/Recase
Notes from the Bench
Stories, updates, and notable projects
