There is a particular moment in every solo show when the work stops being a collection of objects and becomes an exhibition. It usually happens somewhere between the third cup of tea and the first proper look at a wall plan, when you realise the pieces you love most are not necessarily the pieces that belong together. Preparing a solo exhibition from concept to hanging is a long game, and the artists who manage it well are the ones who treat it as a project with stages rather than a sprint towards a private view.

Start With the Argument, Not the Artwork

Before you select a single canvas, write one paragraph that states what the exhibition is about. Not the theme in the abstract — the actual argument. Something like: these paintings test whether colour can carry grief without becoming sentimental. If you cannot write that sentence, you are not ready to choose work, and every subsequent decision will be made by default rather than design.

That paragraph becomes your filter. Every potential piece has to earn its place against it. It also becomes the seed of your gallery proposal, your press release, and the conversation you will have forty times over with invigilators, technicians and curious visitors. Keep it to fifty words and pin it above your desk.

Selecting and Editing the Work

Gather more than you need. If the gallery has thirty metres of hanging space, bring fifty metres' worth of possibilities into the studio and live with them for a fortnight. Move pieces around. Photograph each arrangement. The camera is brutally honest about relationships that flatter in person.

Then edit hard, and edit in the knowledge that you are building a sequence, not a portfolio. Useful questions to ask of each work:

• Does it advance the argument, or simply repeat a point already made?
• Does it hold a wall on its own, or does it need company?
• Is it finished, or is it finished because you are tired?
• Would the show be weaker without it? If the answer is no, it goes.

Be wary of the temptation to include everything you have made in the last three years. A tight show of twelve works will be remembered; a sprawling show of thirty will be walked past. Reserve the strongest three pieces for the spaces the viewer sees last, and do not be afraid to leave gaps.

Writing the Interpretation

Your interpretation text has one job: to give the viewer a way in without telling them what to feel. Write it yourself, in your own voice, and then have someone who knows nothing about your practice read it and tell you where they got lost.

A workable structure for a room sheet is:

• A short opening paragraph on the exhibition's central concern, in plain English.
• Two or three paragraphs on the works themselves — materials, process, and what you were testing.
• A brief note on any specific references, without assuming specialist knowledge.
• Your name, the dates, and a materials list if relevant.

Keep individual captions short: title, year, medium, dimensions, and a note on anything the viewer could not reasonably guess. Avoid the word explores. Avoid explaining the ending. If a work genuinely needs three hundred words to be legible, it may need another look in the studio rather than a longer label.

Planning the Layout

Draw the gallery to scale before you visit with work in hand. Most spaces will send you a plan with dimensions, door swings, socket positions and any fixed lighting tracks. Use it. A rough elevation for each wall, marked up in pencil, will save you hours on installation day.

Decide on a consistent centre line — usually around 150cm from the floor — and stick to it unless a work demands otherwise. Group pieces by conversation, not by size. Leave breathing room at corners and either side of doorways, and think about sightlines from the entrance: what does the viewer see first, and where does that pull them?

Plan the practicalities at the same time:

• Which works need wall fixings, plinths, or floor protection?
• Where will vinyl text and room sheets sit relative to the entrance?
• Are there works that need power, or that cannot be placed near direct sunlight?
• What is the route for large or heavy pieces, and does anything need a wider door?

Managing the Installation and Deadlines

Work backwards from the private view and build in slack. If the show opens on a Friday, aim to have the hang finished by Wednesday lunchtime. That gives you a day for lighting, labels and the inevitable adjustment, and a morning for cleaning the floor and hiding the tools.

Confirm transport, condition reports and insurance well in advance, especially if works are coming from different locations or from a framer. Print a hanging list — one line per work, with wall, position, fixing type and required hardware — and hand a copy to anyone helping. Label the backs of frames with the same list before they leave the studio.

On the day, hang the largest or most difficult work first, from the centre of the wall outwards. Get the centre line right before you drill. Then step back, walk the whole route of the show as a visitor would, and resist the urge to rehang anything after 6pm. The exhibition is finished when the doors open; the rest is conversation.