• ARTWORK
  • EXHIBITIONS
  • NEWS
  • LIBRARY
  • ABOUT
中文 | English
YEAR
  • 2017
  • 2016
  • 2015
  • 2014
  • 2013
  • 2012
  • 2011
  • 2010
  • 2009
  • 2008
  • 2006
  • 2004
  • 2003
  • 2002
  • 2001
  • 2000
  • 1999
  • 1998
  • 1997
  • 1996
  • 1995
  • 1994
  • 1993
  • 1992
  • 1991
  • 1987
  • 1986
  • 1983
  • 1980
  • 1977
......
CATEGORIES
  • PRINTMAKING
    • Mustard Seed Garden Landscape Scroll
    • Ghost Pounding the Wall
    • Lost Letters
    • My Book
    • Five Series of Repetition
    • Bustling Village on the Water
    • Shattered Jade
    • Big Tire
    • Brilliant Mountain Flowers Magazine
  • CHARACTER
    • Book from the Sky
    • Book From the Ground
    • Square Word Calligraphy
    • Square Word Calligraphy Classroom
    • The Character of Characters
    • Mustard Seed Garden Landscape Scroll
    • Living Word
    • Magic Carpet
    • Landscript
    • Art for the People
    • Monkeys Grasp for the Moon
    • Stone Path
    • The Glassy Surface of a Lake
    • Bird Language
    • Excuse Me Sir,Can You Tell Me the Way t...
    • Body Outside of Body
    • Lost Letters
    • Brailliterate
    • A, B, C...
  • ARTIST BOOKS
    • Book from the Sky
    • Square Word Calligraphy Classroom
    • The Foolish Old Man Who Tried to Remove ...
    • Body Outside of Body
    • Cultural Negotiations
  • ANIMALS
    • American Silkworm Series
    • Cultural Animal
    • A Case Study of Transference
    • Wild Zebra
    • Panda Zoo
    • The Leash
    • The Net
    • The Parrot
  • INSTALLATION
    • Book from the Sky
    • Book From the Ground
    • Phoenix
    • Background Story
    • Square Word Calligraphy Classroom
    • Travelling to the Wonderland
    • Tobacco Project
    • Living Word
    • Magic Carpet
    • Where Does the Dust Itself Collect?
    • Landscript
    • Art for the People
    • Monkeys Grasp for the Moon
    • Ghost Pounding the Wall
    • Stone Path
    • Purple Breeze Comes from the East
    • Ergo Dynamic Desktop
    • The Well of Truth
    • The Glassy Surface of a Lake
    • Bird Language
    • Excuse Me Sir,Can You Tell Me the Way t...
    • The Foolish Old Man Who Tried to Remove ...
    • Body Outside of Body
    • Cultural Negotiations
    • Brailliterate
    • Post Testament
    • Big Tire
  • NEW MEDIA
    • Book From the Ground
    • The Character of Characters
    • Nokia: Connect to Art
  • FILM
    • Dragonfly Eyes
  • SOCIAL PROGRAMS
    • Forest Project
    • Ghost Pounding the Wall
    • A Consideration of Golden Apples
......
PROJECTS
  • Dragonfly Eyes
  • Book from the Sky
  • Book From the Ground
  • Phoenix
  • Background Story
  • Square Word Calligraphy
  • Square Word Calligraphy Classroom
  • Travelling to the Wonderland
  • The Character of Characters
  • Mustard Seed Garden Landscape Scroll
  • Forest Project
  • Tobacco Project
  • Living Word
  • Magic Carpet
  • Where Does the Dust Itself Collect?
  • Landscript
  • Art for the People
  • Monkeys Grasp for the Moon
  • American Silkworm Series
  • Cultural Animal
  • A Case Study of Transference
  • Wu Street
  • Ghost Pounding the Wall
  • Five Series of Repetition
  • Bustling Village on the Water
  • Shattered Jade
......
Back Home

Cultural Negotiations

Installation view at Fragmented Memory: The Chinese Avant-Garde in Exile, Wexner Center for the Visual Arts, Ohio, USA, 1992

Installation view at Fragmented Memory: The Chinese Avant-Garde in Exile, Wexner Center for the Visual Arts, Ohio, USA, 1992

Installation view at Fragmented Memory: The Chinese Avant-Garde in Exile, Wexner Center for the Visual Arts, Ohio, USA, 1992

PHOTO|VIDEO

1992

Medium: mixed media installation/ books bound in traditional Chinese and in Western way, tables, chairs


An investigation of the cultural function and meaning of language, this installation combines 300 volumes each of books previously fabricated by Xu Bing. Dubbed ''problem books'' by the artist, these encompass the works Post Testament bound in classical Western style, and Book from the Sky bound in a traditional Chinese manner. While both sets of volumes appear to be traditional, in fact each is a contemporary text designed to be incomprehensible by the reader. The 600 volumes are piled on an enormous reading table measuring 56ft x 12ft, serving as fractured emblems of two cultured systems of knowledge. On the wall above the table is a large sign reading ''QUIET.'' The audience is invited to sit at the table and peruse the books. The contrast of the ordered public reading space, presided over by the warning of QUIET, with the chaos of the information-less books laid on the table in a scattered and turbulent fashion evokes strong cultural implications. 

ARTIST BOOKS INSTALLATION

My Book

PHOTO|VIDEO

1992

Medium: woodblock print on paper


PRINTMAKING