Iris prints on canvas

I am to develop a treatment proposal for an Iris print on canvas by
Yoko Ono. Unfortunately, it has already been retouched with a "Pilot
VBall Grip" pen. My task is to improve this previous, unsatisfactory
treatment.

According to the owning gallery the print was made by Robert Young
and printed on canvas made/coated for ink jet printing. The inks
used for Iris printing appear to be water soluble and have been
sprayed with a protective coating called "Iris Print Sealing, Ink
Jet fixative, solvent based". These Iris print sealants seem to
differ in compound and consequently in solubility.

Does anybody have experience with the restoration of Iris prints
and/or information about  the solubility of those Iris print
sealants mentioned? Or even better, does anybody have relevant
information about similar works by Yoko Ono/Robert Young and knows
which sealant was used (product name, name of printer)?

A further question would be about an adequate retouching medium for
glossy prints on canvas (Iris prints). Does anybody have
recommendations on this issue.

Christina Spaarschuh
Conservator Dipl. Rest. (Univ.)
NIKU
Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research
Postboks 736 Sentrum
0105 Oslo
+47 2335 5066


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 19:59
                 Distributed: Wednesday, June 14, 2006
                       Message Id: cdl-19-59-021
                                  ***