- Monograph focusing on Xu Bing's most ambitious works of art: Book from the Sky and Book from the Ground- Presents the artist's method and motivation in his own words- An accessible yet academic insight into this innovative internationally renowned Chinese artist "The written word is the most basic element of human culture. To touch the written word is to touch the essence of culture." - Xu Bing Book from the Sky certainly seemed to have fallen from the heavens: the text of this installation piece was written in a new language that resembled traditional Chinese. No matter who scours Xu Bing's book for 'meaning', they will only discover a semblance of it: mutated characters that resist interpretation. Carving out approximately four thousand wood blocks by hand, Xu Bing spent four years, from 1987 to 1991, making (in his own words) "something that said nothing".Book from the Sky's lengthy production process is also detailed in this monograph. Carving approximately four thousand wood blocks by hand, Xu Bing (in his own words) spent four years, from 1987 to 1991, making "something that said nothing." After creating a book no one could read, it only made sense for Xu Bing to develop his next project: a book that transcended barriers of language: Book from the Ground. Composed entirely of pictographs, Book from the Ground is a groundbreaking study into the concept of universal communication.Whether his goal is total comprehension or confusion, Xu Bing's masterful exploration of language challenges the way we think about the written word.

Xu Bing: Book from the Sky to Book from the Ground

Arts & Photography

Bing, Xu

History & Criticism

Acc Art Books

<ol>
<li>Innovative and highly-regarded contemporary Chinese artist</li>
<li>Renowned and unique approach to crossing Chinese tradition with Western influences</li>
<li>Accompanies an exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK, from 28 February to 19 May 2013</li>
</ol>
 The new works that Xu Bing is presenting for the first time in this exhibition address the language that these two projects have avoided: the Chinese language, in particular its essential pictographic qualities, and explores the ways in which these have defined Chinese people's relationship with nature, culture and particularly with art. The importance of the written word in Chinese art - as inscription, decoration or calligraphy with brush and ink - is one of the most discussed topics in the history of Chinese art. Xu Bing's interest in it is not connected to the use of characters in artworks, antiques or collectibles but rather lies in the systems within the written language itself, how the visual elements articulate or create a relationship between the language user and the myriad objects around him, and how the repetitious use of those elements builds additional systems, or conventions. It doesn't at first glance look as though it is in English, for the words are configured to look like Chinese characters, in the Square Word Calligraphy that Xu Bing invented in the 1990s, but it is a manifestation of something that runs through all his work and that is the mixing of Western learning with the Chinese philosophical attitude to the natural world.

Landscape Landscript: Nature as Language in the Art of Xu Bing

Vainker, Shelagh

Ashmolean Museum

Book from the ground

de la C. Valenciana, Consorcio de Museus

GENERALITAT VALENCIANA

Born in Sichuan in 1955, Xu Bing is widely considered to be among the most important Chinese artists working today. The Phoenix, the mythical bird that crosses civilizations and eras, has a central role in the artist's latest productions. Xu Bing’s Phoenixes -- made of random common materials used in building construction -- are allegories of the tremendous changes that occurred in China since the opening of the country and illustrate the contrasts within its "renaissance." Xu Bing will be unveiling his new Phoenix at the 2015 Venice Biennale this May. His piece will be located over the water between two boathouses at the Pavilion at Arsenale – Giardino delle Vergini. The 56th International Art Exhibition, titled All the World’s Futures and curated by Okwui Enwezor, will be open to the public from 9 May to 22 November 2015 at the Giardini and Arsenale venues.

Xu Bing : Phoenix

Thircuir

Hung Liu: Great Granary is the story of one of China's pioneering women artists, whose groundbreaking 1981 mural "Music of the Great Earth" (at Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Art) is revered by a generation of Chinese artists, including Xu Bing, Sui Jianguo, Liu Xiaodong, Yu Hong, Wei Lin and Li Songsong, all of whom contribute to this celebratory monograph.

Hung Liu: Great Granary

Hong, Yu

Xiaodong Liu

Lin, Wei

Sui, Jianguo

Songsong, Li

Blue Kingfisher

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Books by Bing, Xu