It was a sunny Tuesday evening in 2016 when British artist Dominic Wilcox opened the doors of his exhibition at the Ugly Duck Gallery in London to the public. Paintings, prints, sculptures and videos were put on display for the eager visitors. But the catch, most of those visitors were dogs!

It was the first ever exhibition, made solely for dogs. It included a water fountain made out of drinking bowls, a mock-up of a car simulating the experience of being driven with the windows open while fans, scented with fresh meat, fish and dirty socks, simulated the blowing winds of dog heaven. Even the sculptures were made with the art-loving dog in mind, one of them was a beautiful piece of Italian smoked ham, placed prominently on top of a white plinth.

And while being hilarious and entertaining, Wilcox’s show makes a wonderful case about why presentation is so important when planing an exhibition. The paintings and screens were hung just a few centimetres from the floor to ensure the best viewing angles, the motifs were carefully selected to fit the expectations of the visitors and even the materials used were a feast for the bodies and souls of the artist’s target audience.

Sure, our audience might usually be a bit more demanding than man’s best friend, but nevertheless our job as creatives is to communicate ideas in a clear and accessible way. This isn’t to say everybody will or even should like your work, and that we all should produce compliant and likeable art while sacrificing our creative integrity and personal vision. Merely as a reminder that if for example we created a show featuring a pop art sculpture of a giant nail, why not make the inauguration more accessible to those who really like to hammer?