• ARTWORK
  • EXHIBITIONS
  • NEWS
  • LIBRARY
  • ABOUT
中文 | English
YEAR
  • 2022
  • 2021
  • 2020
  • 2019
  • 2018
  • 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
  • 1988
  • 1987
  • 1986
  • 1983
  • 1980
  • 1977
......
CATEGORIES
    • 卫星上的湖泊
  • PRINTMAKING
    • Series of Repetitions
    • Mustard Seed Garden Landscape Scroll
    • Ghosts Pounding the Wall
    • Lost Letters
    • My Book
    • Five Series of Repetitions
    • Bustling Village on the Water
    • Shattered Jade
    • Big Tire
    • Brilliant Mountain Flowers Magazine
  • CHARACTER
    • The Seven-Character Poetry Collection of...
    • The Genetics of Reading Image
    • Tobacco Project I: Miscellaneous Book
    • Tobacco Project I: Match Book
    • Tobacco Project I: Longing
    • Tobacco Project I: Daodejing
    • Silkworm Book: The Analects of Confucius
    • Stone Path
    • Forest Project
    • Book from the Ground
    • Living Word
    • Book from the Sky
    • Square Word Calligraphy
    • Square Word Calligraphy Classroom
    • The Character of Characters
    • Mustard Seed Garden Landscape Scroll
    • Landscript
    • Art for the People
    • The Glassy Surface of a Lake
    • Bird Language
    • Excuse Me Sir, Can You Tell Me How to Ge...
    • Body Outside of Body
    • Lost Letters
    • Telephone
    • Brailliterate
    • Post Testament
    • A, B, C...
    • Monkeys Grasp for the Moon
  • ARTIST BOOKS
    • The Seven-Character Poetry Collection of...
    • Tobacco Project I: Reel Book
    • Tobacco Project I: Miscellaneous Book
    • Tobacco Project I: Match Book
    • Tobacco Project I: Calendar Book
    • Silkworm Book: The Analects of Confucius
    • Book from the Sky
    • Square Word Calligraphy Classroom
    • The Foolish Old Man Who Tried to Remove ...
    • Body Outside of Body
    • The Big Table
    • Post Testament
  • ANIMALS
    • Silkworm Book: The Analects of Confucius
    • A Case Study of Transference: Times Over...
    • Phoenix
    • Living Word
    • American Silkworm Series
    • Cultural Animal
    • Bird Language
    • Wild Zebra
    • Panda Zoo
    • The Leash
    • The Net
    • The Parrot
  • INSTALLATION
    • The Genetics of Reading Image
    • Gravitational Arena
    • Tobacco Project I: Longing
    • Silkworm Book: The Analects of Confucius
    • A Case Study of Transference: Times Over...
    • Phoenix
    • Stone Path
    • Background Story
    • Book from the Ground
    • Living Word
    • Book from the Sky
    • Square Word Calligraphy Classroom
    • Travelling to the Wonderland
    • Where Does the Dust Itself Collect?
    • Landscript
    • Art for the People
    • Ghosts Pounding the Wall
    • 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 How to Ge...
    • The Foolish Old Man Who Tried to Remove ...
    • Body Outside of Body
    • The Big Table
    • Brailliterate
    • Post Testament
    • A, B, C...
    • Big Tire
    • Air Memorial
    • Wild Zebra
    • Panda Zoo
    • The Leash
    • The Net
    • The Parrot
    • Tobacco Project III: Richmond
    • Tobacco Project II: Shanghai
    • Tobacco Project I: Durham
    • Monkeys Grasp for the Moon
  • NEW MEDIA
    • Artificial Intelligence Infinite Film (A...
    • Book from the Ground
    • The Character of Characters
    • Nokia: Connect to Art
  • FILM
    • 卫星上的湖泊
    • Artificial Intelligence Infinite Film (A...
    • Dragonfly Eyes
  • SOCIAL PROGRAMS
    • Forest Project
    • Wu Street
    • Ghosts Pounding the Wall
    • A Consideration of Golden Apples
......
PROJECTS
  • Xu Bing Tianshu Rocket
  • Book from the Ground Pop-up Book (2014 E...
  • The Seven-Character Poetry Collection of...
  • 卫星上的湖泊
  • Artificial Intelligence Infinite Film (A...
  • The Genetics of Reading Image
  • Gravitational Arena
  • Dragonfly Eyes
  • Phoenix
  • Stone Path
  • Forest Project
  • Background Story
  • Book from the Ground
  • Living Word
  • Book from the Sky
  • Square Word Calligraphy
  • Square Word Calligraphy Classroom
  • Where Does the Dust Itself Collect?
  • Landscript
  • Art for the People
  • American Silkworm Series
  • Cultural Animal
  • Tobacco Project III: Richmond
  • Tobacco Project II: Shanghai
  • Tobacco Project I: Durham
  • Monkeys Grasp for the Moon
......
Back Home

The Big Table

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


In an investigation of the cultural function and meaning of language, this installation combines 300 volumes of books each 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 may initially appear to be traditional, each one is actually a contemporary text designed to be incomprehensible to the reader. The 600 volumes are piled onto a reading table with dimensions of 56 feet by 12 feet, serving as fractured emblems of two cultured systems of knowledge. Above the table, a large sign reading “QUIET” invites the audience to sit and peruse the books. The contrast between the ordered public reading space, emphasized by the “QUIET” warning, and the chaos of the information-less books scattered on the table points to significant cultural implications. 

ARTIST BOOKS INSTALLATION

My Book

PHOTO|VIDEO

1992


Medium: Woodblock print on paper

Dimensions: 35 x 250 cm


My Book expands on the concept of the work A, B, C... in the form of a woodblock print. The image is of a hardcover book designed and bound in traditional Western fashion. The book is open to a page that displays a comparison table of the English-to-Chinese transliteration system which Xu Bing developed in A, B, C… Moreover, the words on the page seem to be printed in a script that resembles calligraphy but is composed of ersastz words using the Roman alpabet. Similar to Xu Bing's previous work, Book from the Sky, these words are illegible and incomprehensible. Thus, although My Book might outwardly appear to be a traditional book, its contents remain impossible to read or unerstand.

The structure of My Book is similar to the earlier woodblock print Five Series of Repetitions, as it repeatedly uses the same block and showcases progressive stages of wood carving. In this instance, the wood block starts with a completely unengraved black panel and gradually reveals the image of My Book in its finished form, where it abruptly stops.

PRINTMAKING