How to finish, wash and dry fibre paper prints for exhibition and sale

[Pieter]

It was LACMA. https://youtu.be/p0M5IvUrkKg

[jnantz]

George Tice does something similar. The print is dry-mounted to paper which is then affixed to the mounting board.

sounds and looks dangerous!
I do that with wheat or rice paste instead of dry mount tissue. Ive tipped pages in books like that but never something that's hung on a wall could probably be done with a hinge. I figure it would probably work seeing billboards use a similar paste ( or used to ) no heat involved and it's 100% reversible, organic pH neutral.

[Michael R]

I hate to bring this up, but realistically does anyone here need to worry that dry-mounting is the reason museums are not acquiring their prints?

[nitroplait]

I find "dry-mounting" destructive and would never pay a premium for a dry-mounted print.
I highly prefer that the print can live & breathe hinged behind the passpartout.

The prints I have purchased from Elliot Erwitt, Gerry Johansson, Alec Soth, Blake Andrews, Anita Lönn, Watabe Yukitchi and others have never been dry-mounted.

[Erik Larsen]

I hate to bring this up, but realistically does anyone here need to worry that dry-mounting is the reason museums are not acquiring their prints?

Dang it, I knew there must be a reason museums aren’t busting down my door to get at my prints. It’s all the dry mountings fault! In all seriousness, mount how you want it to look and let later generations curse or praise your decision if your prints happen to outlive you or just end up in the landfill along with all your other treasures that are important to you but your heirs could care less about.

[Pieter]

Dry-mounted prints decompose slower in the landfill than other mounting methods. Keep that in mind if you are concerned about the future of the planet rather than your ego.

[Erik Larsen]

Dry-mounted prints decompose slower in the landfill than other mounting methods. Keep that in mind if you are concerned about the future of the planet rather than your ego.

Hmmm, good point
I wonder if RC paper should be banned because of the plastic lasting forever in a landfill?

[Maris Rusis]

I looked through some prints I dry mounted on cheap 4-ply board 35 years ago. Yes, I had no money and didn't know better at the time.
The prints are pristine and as good as the day they were made. But the mount boards are mottled, foxed, and downright ugly. Very obviously the old fashioned high temperature dry mount tissue has protected the prints from the nasty boards.
So, is dry mounting a good thing? Maybe not.
The gallery that represented me could not acceptably promote these pictures to collectors. The pictures would have to be unmounted and then be offered in a clean presentation. Which from a conservation point of view is a chancy procedure with lots opportunities for disaster. In effect dry mounting saved the prints but made them worthless at the same time.

[Fred L]

I remember seeing a video once where a curator (SFMOMA?) was going though a box of Lee Friedlander prints. They were each dry-mounted to a debossed sheet of what looked like watercolor or etching paper, with deckled edges if I'm not mistaken.

Very interesting presentation. Curious how does one deboss paper ? Looks like one would need a platten, press or vice ?

[Pieter]

Very interesting presentation. Curious how does one deboss paper ? Looks like one would need a platten, press or vice ?

I'm pretty sure Mr Friedlander does (did?) his own printing, but maybe he left the mounting to an assistant or sent it out. I would imagine some sort of custom debossing die that also allowed dry mounting would be involved, maybe something used in the press printing and binding trade.