#IconBPG25 Conservation Uncovered: Investigation and Discovery in Treatment and Analysis

Paola Fagnola

PhD student, Brera Academy of Fine Arts

Paola Fagnola is an Italian book conservator and teacher. Moving the first steps into bookbinding at the age of 16, she learnt bookbinding at the Centro del Bel Libro in Ascona (CH). She graduated in Conservation (library cultural heritage: book and paper, photographic material, time-based media) at ICPAL, Rome, in 2016. She has taught bookbinding and book conservation in Design as well as Conservation Schools, holding lessons and workshops in Turin, Rome, Milan, Alessandria, Spoleto. She’s in charge of Conservation, Education and Communication in the family-owned studio Bottega Fagnola in Turin. She’s currently enrolled as a PhD student at Brera Academy of Fine Arts (Milan, Italy) with a research in the history of Italian bookbinding in the industrial era. 

Elena Mazzoni

Elena Mazzoni is specialized in the conservation and restoration of cultural heritage, with a focus on managing complex projects. Currently involved in the digitization, reconditioning, and restoration of paper materials at Insaid - Document Management Services, a cooperative dedicated to preserving archival documents, photographs, and film reels. Previously, she worked as Museum Conservator and Head of the Historical Archive and Library at the Officina della Scrittura in Turin. Since her graduation Conservation (library cultural heritage: book and paper, photographic material, time-based media) at ICPAL, Rome, in 2021, she collaborated in conservation planning and treatments of paper and photographic artifacts.

Sofia Pregagnoli

Sofia Pregagnoli is an Italian book and paper conservator. She graduated in Conservation (library cultural heritage: book and paper, photographic material, time-based media) at the University of Tor Vergata, Rome, in 2021. She has completed an extracurricular internship of one year at the Central National Library of Florence and then one of six months at Bottega Fagnola in Turin, and still collaborates with them. In 2024, she has carried out an annual project of research and conservation at the CRPR of Palermo. She is currently involved in restoration projects in Rome.

Marysia Tarnowska

Heritage Scientist

Marysia Tarnowska is a heritage scientist. Most recently, they worked at the British Library as a conservation scientist. Prior to that, they worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Biodiscovery Institute, University of Nottingham on AI assisted drug discovery. A chemist by training, Marysia discovered heritage science during their PhD (University of Nottingham) and won an EPSRC IAA grant to expand their thesis on the synthesis of handcuff rotaxanes and other interlocked supramolecules to include red rot in leather in collaboration with the Natural History Museum, London.

Marc Vermeulen

Head of Heritage Science and Conservation Research, The National Archives (UK)

Marc Vermeulen is Head of Heritage Science and Conservation Research at The National Archives (UK). He holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Antwerp (2017). Prior to joining TNA, he was a Mellon Senior Fellow at The Met, where he studied pigments and colorants in Hokusai’s prints to build a production chronology.  As a Research Associate at NU-ACCESS (2019–2022), Marc led projects on colonial-era painting materials, Caribbean art, and arsenic-based pigments in bookbindings, while also contributing to open-access tools for scientific data analysis. At TNA, his current research explores how materiality can inform historical context, using scientific evidence to illuminate the cultural and social dimensions of heritage materials.