Combating redundancy - writing texts for exhibitions

Is there really any need for words in a museum? Aren't pictures, exhibits, labels and sets enough? Aren't our modern museums so loaded with messages of various kinds that visitors can learn all they need from the exhibits without the written word?

Far from it. By using written material for other purposes than mere labels and summaries we can put words on a par with the other exhibition material. We can use words to give a new, deeper dimension to our visual experience. Words make us think, and our thoughts conjure up pictures in our minds. Is it not through mental pictures like these that we discover the world around us?

When I was asked to write the texts for the Postal Museum's permanent exhibition "A letter makes all the difference" I was confronted, together with producer Elisabet Olofsson and designer Björn Ed, with a number of questions. Elisabet and Björn knew about these problems, and they were agreed that in this exhibition the texts were to have the same status as the documents and other exhibits, that it was worth devoting time and energy to this written material rather than turn out something slapdash at the last minute.

An exhibition text has to put up with more competition than most other written material. It has to compete for people's attention with all the other material and tends to be the last thing to catch their eye when they stand in front of the exhibits. They have to read the text standing, probably after a tiring walk on hard stone floors. The light is poor compared to their reading lamps at home, and it is impossible to vary the reading angle as with a book or newspaper. We are up against great odds, and the only way to overcome these obstacles is to make the text easy to read.