Poster and print design for the exhibition Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing.

Xu Bing is the first living artist to have a major one-person exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is a major national gallery that houses an extensive collection of historical Asian art. With the Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing exhibition, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery moves in a new direction by recognizing art of Xu Bing as an important contemporary component of the long history of Chinese art.

Curated by Dr. Britta Erickson, a distinguished scholar and curator of modern and contemporary Chinese art, Word Play is comprised of nine installations. It is at once a retrospective and a introduction to his latest work. Important earlier installations, such as Book from the Sky, A.B.C., and the Square Word Calligraphy Classroom form the basis of the exhibition. Three new installations, Monkeys Grasp for the Moon, The Living Word, and the Square Word Calligraphy: Computer Font Project, were created specifically this exhibition.. These new installations reveal Xu Bing's latest preoccupations in his language-based art work. Monkeys Grasp for the Moon, was designed specifically for the space it occupies in the exhibition. The work is installed in the main staircase of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery where it will remain as a permanent installation and part of the collection of the gallery.

Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing has found a public audience at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Charmed and intrigued by Xu Bing's language-based artworks, visitors to the gallery spend time interacting with the installations by inputting their names into computers that generate Square Words in the Square Word Calligraphy: Computer Font and by practicing the Square Word Calligraphy writing style in the Square Word Calligraphy Classroom. The exhibition has also drawn public attention in the media. A review of Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing written by Blake Gopnik appeared in The Washington Post on Sunday, October 28, 2001.