Invitation to the Defense of Catherine Bouvier

The Examination Panel is made up of: Carolin Bohlmann (chair), Wolfgang Baatz (first supervisor), Sigrid Eyb-Green (second supervisor, University), and Irene Brückle (external appraiser, abk Stuttgart).

Abstract

This thesis describes the professionalisation process of paper conservation in Austria from various perspectives: On the one hand, the development of workshops at archives, libraries, and museums is reconstructed, covering the period from the first indication of conservation/restoration activities to the present day. The focus covers the period between the founding of the workshops and the turn of the millennium. In addition, I analyse how and where transfer of knowledge took place: The emergence of various training and further education opportunities in Austria and abroad as well as professional associations play an important role here. The resulting professionalisation led to the gradual recognition of the field, as evidenced by, e.g., the gradual upgrading of civil service positions. The third part of the thesis is dedicated to the influence that various events had on developments in paper conservation in Austria. The Florence Flood of 1966 and the paper decay that threatened the wood-pulp -containing newspaper collection of the ÖNB are discussed as concrete examples. To generate new knowledge, guided expert interviews were conducted. The information gained from these interviews was cross-referenced and verified using other sources such as literature and archives. This dissertation represents the first overview of the historical development of paper conservation in Austria. The dissertation’s purpose is two-fold: (i) enable further research, and (ii) provide a framework to aid the field’s ongoing localization and professionalization efforts.

Keywords: paper conservation / book conservation / archival conservation / library conservation / Austria / expert interviews / oral history / historical development / training / professionalisation / knowledge transfer / professional associations

Short biography

Catherine Bouvier was born in Upper Austria in 1982. She completed her M.A. degree in art history at the University of Vienna in 2007 with a thesis on a group of Flemish Books of Hours from the ÖNB. Her second diploma thesis, specialising in the conservation-restoration of paper, photo, book and archive material at the Institute for Conservation and Restoration at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (IKR), was written in cooperation with the Albertina Vienna and dealt with object-biographical and art-technological aspects of a triumphal procession of Maximilian I, of which 54 paintings on parchment have been preserved. This thesis was finished in 2011. After an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, she returned to Vienna in 2015, where she began her doctoral studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 2016. Between 2019 and 2022, she was employed as a pre-doc at the IKR as part of the research project „The Development of Conservation in the Years 1950-2000 in Austria: Tacit Knowledge and Disciplinary Professionalisation”, funded by the Jubiläumsfonds of the Austrian National Bank, and also worked independently as a paper conservator. Between 2015 and 2023, she was a board member of the ÖRV  Professional Association of Austrian Conservators and is still active as an editor for the association's publications. Today, she resides near Munich and works as a private paper conservator.

The thesis defense will be in German and will take place at the foyer of IKR at Augasse.

We are looking forward to welcoming you.