Matter out of place: Paradigms for analyzing textile cleaning

The approaches and judgments used in conservation cleaning, as well as in domestic cleaning, have developed as part of a social process. This paper identifies four paradigms that have influenced textile conservation cleaning: the domestic, the sacred and heroic, the art-historical, and the evidential. The domestic paradigm is based on a link that usually remains uncontested, between cleanliness and social and/or moral worth, as demonstrated by examples drawn from literature. The effects of the other three paradigms are demonstrated through analysis of published case studies. Recognizing the contextual relationships of these influential paradigms enables curators and conservators to overtly debate and more fully document decisions about conservation cleaning.