CASE STUDIES
From a fragile website to an archive in stone: the case of Les Établissements Decoux
Preserving a cultural archive does not necessarily mean maintaining forever the CMS that once published it.
In brief
Books, articles, interviews, podcasts and audio archives
ets-decoux.com is more than a showcase. It documents Les Établissements Decoux, an independent publishing house founded in Brussels by Didier Decoux in 2005 and active in the field of artists’ books. It brings together publications, articles, interviews, podcasts, audio archives, collaborations and historical documents.
Its texts, images and voices preserve the memory of an editorial practice, its authors and its place in the Brussels art scene. The value of this material extends far beyond the lifetime of the software used to publish it.
In August 2026, this digital heritage was threatened when the legacy SPIP website was compromised. After containment, the team took time to reconsider the real need: restore a dynamic CMS, or choose a more durable form for a website that had become primarily archival?
Approval was given to transform ets-decoux.com into a static archive with Hugo, preserving its content, public URLs and historical design while removing the CMS, database and PHP execution from the exposed website.
What needed protection was not merely a website, but the memory of an editorial and cultural practice.
Cultural heritage made technically fragile
Preserving both the collection and its graphic form
The website links its catalogue to writing about projects, interviews with artists and authors, podcasts, audio recordings and the history of Les Établissements Decoux. Some of these elements are difficult to find elsewhere or are no longer available in their original form.
Its presentation also has documentary value. Navigation, typography and the relationship between text and images reflect a period in the publisher’s history. Yet the old SPIP installation, its PHP environment and overly broad permissions formed a fragile system that was difficult and costly to secure over time.
21–25 August: preservation and containment
Leaving the emergency behind before choosing the right restoration
Preserved traces show malicious files appearing from 21 August. PHP backdoors and persistence mechanisms were subsequently found in the CMS, caches and media directories. Recent daily backups already contained indicators of compromise, so restoring the latest copy could simply have put an infected version back online.
On 25 August, files, the database, logs and other useful evidence were preserved before intervention. SHA-256 hashes made it possible to verify their integrity.
At 16:30, the compromised tree was removed from public access, replaced by a static maintenance page, and PHP execution was stopped. Containment protected visitors, stopped the malicious activity and, crucially, created time. Without pressure to restore the CMS immediately, the team and client could reconsider the website’s future purpose.
29 August: choosing a static archive
A response tailored to the website’s archival purpose
The website had become primarily archival: its content needed to remain available, without requiring a publishing system and administration interface to run permanently. Approval was therefore given to transform it into a static archive with Hugo.
Hugo is a free and open-source static site generator that turns content and templates into HTML files ready to be served directly on the web. The public website no longer needs a CMS, a database, PHP or an exposed administration interface.
A dynamic website resembles a living organism: its layers must continually be monitored, updated and tested. For an archive that changes little, this flexibility becomes a recurring cost and source of fragility.
A static page, by contrast, is already composed. Like an inscription in stone, it has few moving parts and can remain readable for a long time with little maintenance. Backups, integrity checks and restoration of a known version also become much simpler.
The result has a much smaller attack surface, deterministic and reproducible publication, faster delivery and fewer maintenance requirements. It also frees the archive from future changes to SPIP and PHP. “Immutable” does not mean uneditable: a correction follows a controlled process of updating the source, generating, checking and publishing a new version.
Preserving the design, not only the text
Visual continuity in the service of the archive
Hugo is not being used to redesign the website, but to preserve it faithfully. Navigation, public URLs, typography, colours, images, publications and downloadable documents are retained.
This continuity respects the visual identity of Les Établissements Decoux and preserves the website as a cultural object, not merely a collection of texts. It also protects inbound links, existing search visibility and familiar landmarks for returning visitors.
A static archive is not invulnerable: the web server, DNS and deployment access still require protection. Yet for material that must remain available and changes little, it offers a simpler, safer and more durable medium than a dynamic application.
A static archive has something of stone about it: stable, restrained and almost immutable.
Assessment
For editorial heritage that must remain accessible but changes little, the best restoration is not always another CMS. By retaining the original design, content and addresses, Hugo gives the archives of Les Établissements Decoux a simpler, safer and more durable medium.
If you face a similar problem and would like to transform your website into an archive, contact the all2all team. We will be pleased to listen to your situation and propose an appropriate solution based on a clear quotation.