Translation / museum catalogues / Dutch / Spanish ?

[I apologize in advance if this message is somehow inappropriate to post to this forum. I'm not a regular contributer here !]

Hello all,

I know this is a long shot, but the Internet community has helped me out before, so why not try it this time ?

My sister studies Spanish language and literature here in Utrecht, majoring in translation a.o. She is also interested in arts and tried to think of a subject for her thesis that would combine the two; museum publications are one of the potential subjects. Think of something like: the problems in translating catalogues or other publications. Lots of possibilities -I think- since there's likely to be an amount of jargon involved, plus cultural and historical aspects. Translation problems all over the place.

The problem is: a language is usually not a search criterium, i.e. I can not search for books or articles written in language X. Any search for bilingual material is extremely time-consuming this way.

Now my question : does any of you people out there have any clues, references with respect to this topic ? The ideal response would be a list of museum publications available in both Dutch and Spanish, but that's something I can only hope for. Other references are just as welcome though, e.g. on relations between translation and art.

Thanks in advance,

On the subject of translations in museums

There's an obituary today in the New York Times for Irma Bezold Wilkinson, who passed away recently. Mrs. Wilkinson was one of the original writers of the classic *Museum Registration Methods.*

The obituary can be viewed on the web at:

Many databases permit searching by language. Both OCLC and RLIN permit one to limit search results by language. If you are not familiar with these bibliographic databases a librarian can help you.

On Thu, 1 May 1997, Sandor Spruit wrote:

At the Israel Museum all labels, texts, signs etc. are bilingual - in Hebrew and English. Introductory texts are also in Arabic. Exhibitions with special interest to Arabic speakers (such as Islamic Art) have labels and texts in all three languages (Hebrew, English and Arabic).

Timna Seligman Department of Art from Africa, Oceania and the Americas The Israel Museum, Jerusalem