Xu Bing
Book from the Sky
Beijing, China: Self-published, 1991
50 x 33 x 10 cm.
Edition of 100 signed and numbered copies
Originally created for a monumental installation of books, wall and ceiling scrolls, these hand-woodblock printed books contain four-thousand invented characters that cannot be decoded. Believing that writing is the “essence of culture”, the artist renders all readers illiterate with his pseudo-Chinese characters which appear plausible but in fact carry no discernible meaning.
“Any doctoring of the written word results in transformation at the core of a person’s thinking…My approach is filled with reverence, yet mixed with mockery; as I tease [the written word], I also hold it above the altar.”
“Any doctoring of the written word results in transformation at the core of a person’s thinking…My approach is filled with reverence, yet mixed with mockery; as I tease [the written word], I also hold it above the altar.”
- Xu Bing
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