Many modern cultural artefacts, from Neil Armstrong's space suit to works of art, contain plastics that may degrade readily. Museums now face the challenge of saving vulnerable and important examples for future generations. Yvonne Shashouas book Conservation of Plastics is a timely, thoughtful and thorough review of the young discipline of plastics conservation. It will help conservators, curators, archivists and collectors of modern materials, and will be of interest to materials scientists and chemists. Often misidentified by the untrained eye, plastics are present in scientific, technological and social historical collections, and increasingly in modern art and textiles. Certain twentieth-century plastics, notably early polyvinyl chloride and polyurethane foams, degrade relatively swiftly and severely.
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