We often receive pictures of broken books through texts and emails, the sender is often in a quandary as to wether or not their book can be repaired. Rest assured, the only books I have met and could not repair were ones that had wet cement poured over the top of them and then left in that condition for almost 200 years. Other than that, books of all types can be repaired.
But my book doesn’t have a spine covering, can it still be repaired? YES!
And my book’s covers are detached, can it still be repaired? YES!
And my book has missing or torn pages, can it also be repaired? YES!
Or my book is 500 years old, can it be repaired? YES! (In fact, I’d love to see it!)
Many other things may be wrong with your book, but through conservation and/or restoration, we can bring your book back to life, and make it useable once again.
With book conservation we try to retain the highest percentage of the original book, repair it and then put it back together. With restoration we may add new elements like new leather, papers or headbands. With each book there may be some of both, conservation and/or restoration, depending on the end results the client wants, talk with the conservator to make those decisions.