Query re bookbinding/book conservation as a profession

[James R. Kelly]

I've had this question sent to me by a non-SHARP colleague. I think that you
on the listserv can in all likelihood provide me (and her) with more than
enough in the way of suggestions and leads at the very outset, hence this
query. Many thanks in advance for any and all responses. I'll be meeting with
her on Friday of this week to discuss her proposal further, so any ideas sent
along by then would be especially useful!

Cheers and a Happy Fourth (for the US contingent) and a belated Happy Canada
Day (for our northern neighbors)! And best wishes to all visiting The Hague
next week!

Jim Kelly

----- Forwarded message

Later in the summer I will be presenting a conference paper
on the development & evolution of the field of bookbinding
and book conservation (Institute of Paper Conservation 5th
Int'l conference). This topic interests me as it can trace
the development of programs at institutions from vocational
schools to art schools and back again: the concept that a
blue collar trade could transition to a white collar
profession.

For background research, I am looking into the writings of
philosophies of labor: the concept that the artisan
produces more than a craft, but actually has a fuller
relationship with the world around himself. Examples of
philosophical writings in this field obviously include
William Morris and his (elitist) socialism, to the Bauhaus
conceptual foundings of workmanship.

My MA thesis was on the early development of artists books
by Dada and Surrealists, and I am looking to expand this
search beyond the narrow scale of avant garde art to the
larger middle class sphere that 'book conservation' could
be said to encompass. In the 1920s, a swath of 'how to'
craftsmanship series were produced. I'd really like to
find out *why* -- who were the thinkers, the authors, the
institution affiliations, the publishers, the intended
audience.

----- End forwarded message -----


James R. Kelly
Humanities Bibliographer
W.E.B. Du Bois Library
University of Massachusetts
154 Hicks Way
Amherst, MA 01003-9275

American Co-Editor
Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature
Department of English
Bartlett Hall
University of Massachusetts
130 Hicks Way
Amherst, MA 01003-9269

[phone]; [phone] (fax)
E-mail: ***@library.umass.edu

Adjunct faculty, Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information
Science; Visiting Fellow, Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies

[Robin Kinross]

Post by James R. Kelly
Later in the summer I will be presenting a conference paper
on the development & evolution of the field of bookbinding
and book conservation (Institute of Paper Conservation 5th
Int'l conference). This topic interests me as it can trace
the development of programs at institutions from vocational
schools to art schools and back again: the concept that a
blue collar trade could transition to a white collar
profession.
For background research, I am looking into the writings of
philosophies of labor: the concept that the artisan
produces more than a craft, but actually has a fuller
relationship with the world around himself. Examples of
philosophical writings in this field obviously include
William Morris and his (elitist) socialism, to the Bauhaus
conceptual foundings of workmanship.

I wouldn't say that Morris's socialism was elitist. If reading what
Morris wrote doesn't make that clear enough, have a look at what he
was doing in the 1880s: incessant travels around Britain giving talks
to Socialist League and similar groups. My impression is that in his
manner and his whole mentality, Morris was on a level with working-
class people, not talking down to them. He strove for abolition or
supersession of any elite.

For a fairly recent source, though the book was first issued in 1969,
you could look at Norman Potter's _What is a designer_ (http://
www.hyphenpress.co.uk/titles/what_is_a_designer/contents.html)
for reflections on these issues: 'designer as artisan', the class
nature of the design and making professions, and so on.

Robin Kinross

[chela]

A few works that I find important when thinking about book
conservation and bookbinding are:

David Pye The Nature and Art of Workmanship 1968

Christopher Clarkson "The Conservation of Early Books in a Codex
Form: A Personal Approach: part 1"
The Paper Conservator V. 3 1978

Learning from Things: Method and Theory of Material Culture Studies.
Ed. David Kingery 1996

As a teacher I can attest to hopes among students that conservation
could have the potential to engender a "fuller relationship with the
world around himself" as noted by the author of the original
posting. This is due in no small part to the hoped for integration
of working with the head and the hands in conservation, which is also
the domain of the master craftsperson. In any case, the issues of
what the proper education for a hand-bookbinder and book conservator
should be is by no means settled, and there is much dispute on the
topic, at least in the US.

I wonder if the development of Freemasonry might not offer an
interesting take on craft evolution and craft "mystery"?

Early publishers of printed books also published an astonishing
number of craft "manuals" exposing the "mystery" of various trades.
Joseph Moxon's on the Art of Printing in 1683 is just one
example...it is an interesting phenomenon.


c
--
Consuela Metzger
Lecturer - Book Conservation
School of Information
The Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station D7000
Austin, TX 78712-0390
[phone]
[phone] (fax)
***@ischool.utexas.edu

[Matthew Gilmore]

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