The Interpretation Matters Handbook

Writing about art in galleries is a complex but vital part of the visitor experience, so let's talk about it. Rarely part of of a professional visual arts discourse, The Interpretation Matters Handbook questions and evaluates how galleries write about art.

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From "radical unreality" to "leggy plasticity", The Interpretation Matters Handbook dissects some of the most baffling examples of art lingo going, kickstarting a conversation about written interpretation practice in galleries. With the active involvement of the people who are intimately involved in the process - the curators, the artists, the gallery education professionals, and importantly, gallery visitors - The Interpretation Matters Handbook starts from a place that recognises there is no one single way of writing about art, and no one single audience that text panels are addressing. It recognises cultural debates about the role of wall texts in galleries, and indeed, whether there should be any at all (a position more popular in the US than here). In short, writing about art in galleries is a complex and often difficult task. This aspect of gallery practice is rarely part of our professional visual arts discourse. To an unusual degree, matters of written interpretation are 'below the radar', an in-house concert that also needs to evolve, be questioned and evaluated in the same way as other aspects of exhibition making.