Texts – an exhibition is not a book.
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Texts

an exhibition is not a book.  


Text plays an indispensable role in the exhibition. However, exhibition texts are read differently by a museum visitor in an exhibition space than by a reader with a book. Museum texts should be short and organised into few clearly identifiable levels – title, subtitle and ‘chat’ body text. The user-language employed should encourage the maximum intellectual involvement on the part of the visitor, and special texts should address the needs of audiences not familiar with the material. Exhibition texts should not overwhelm the objects, and where necessary, other means should be used to mitigate the visual impact of too much text. Paradoxically texts (as long as they are displayed in readable type sizes and intelligibly written) are the most ‘interactive’ medium: a text can be read quickly, slowly, in part or in bits, from the middle, end or beginning.