Here are some tips gleaned from my experience curating exhibits. They are not rules, but more like reminders--general considerations that lend themselves to making any communication more effective. As graduate students of English, many of these will be old hat to you, but sometimes when embarking on a new genre, we forget what we already know.
Exhibits tell a story. The arc can be hard to detect if one goes through an exhibit at random, but experienced exhibit goers will try to follow the flow, going through each item in the intended order. This means, your labels will have to be freestanding but also fit into the overall arc. Think of poems or collections of linked stories, where some readers encounter the poems/stories in isolation, while others read them as parts of a whole.
What story does British Literary Annuals tell?
Remember that you are not only speaking to other graduate students and your professor but also to undergrads, parents and siblings, well-educated members of the public who seek out interesting exhibits. Ask yourself: would this be interesting and meaningful to my mother? A really good exercise would be to draft your label for your mother, explaining why the item you’re exhibiting is significant within the terms of the exhibit.
Remember that the purpose of your label is not so much to highlight the general significance of a book or image, but to highlight its significance within your exhibit. This is often simply a matter of framing. Notice how the labels of the Beardsley exhibit so often relate the item to aspects of Beardsley’s personality or biography.
The style of your exhibit should be appropriate to the subject matter. You should aim for consistency. Also, the venue should be a consideration: remember that the viewer is not in a quiet room at home but in a public space with many distractions.
Read the first two paragraphs from one of the example exhibits.
The attention-grabbing quality is appropriately heightened in the opening paragraph of the Beardsley exhibit text as it reflects the shocking effects of Beardsley’s more notorious works. Many of us would be tempted to start with the second paragraph--all necessary and important information-- but the first paragraph is so much more effective at launching the exhibit with memorable, concrete examples. This isn’t to say that the paragraph doesn’t engage with ideas, but those ideas are conveyed very succinctly through concrete examples. They are more attention grabbing than starting with broad statements, such as you find in the second paragraph.
Additional take-away: consider deleting your first, throat-clearing, paragraph or consider rearranging so your more engaging content comes first.
Try to maintain consistency of tone throughout (much easier to do when just one person is writing!)
This example is different in that it covers the exhibit of a private collector Caroline Schimmel, who is also the author of the catalog. This catalog is much more voice-driven, in that in conveys the personality of the collector. From the title, to the first sentence of the exhibit description to the labels themselves, Schimmel employs a direct, personal, even folksy (non-academic) tone that is entirely appropriate to the content of the exhibit. You feel like the collector/author is standing in front of you, so well does she convey her presence. You don’t necessarily want to imitate that tone, but the quality of consistency Schimmel achieves.
Title: OK, I’ll Do It Myself: Narratives of Intrepid Women in the American Wilderness
First sentence: “The tenured professors at Western History Association meetings still struggle mightily over the definitions of Frontier and Wilderness, but grudgingly admit mine has the ring of truth: fifty yards from a flush toilet”
Label: “The progressive, prolific, and wildly popular English author set this bodice-ripper om Africa and Surinam, a country she visited (perhaps) in 1663-4, acquiring a Dutch trader husband who died of the plague the following year. She claimed to have been a spy in Antwerp for Charles II, whose refusal to pay her wages forced her into debtors’ prison and writing, churning out at least 17 novels.”
Generally use Chicago Manual of Style (this link takes you to the catalog record, which has a link to an electronic version).
Last name, first name, dates. Title. City of publication: Publisher, date. Collection (if applicable) and call number
Some books won’t be part of a collection. Some items might be part of the William Luther Lewis Collection. These items will have “Lewis” before the call number.
Haverford College’s exhibit writing guidelines
University of Michigan's guide to writing labels
Victoria & Albert Museum's “Gallery Text at the V&A: A Ten Point Guide.”
