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 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 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. 

1992

Medium: woodblock print on paper

35 x 250 cm

My Book is an elaboration of the work A, B, C... in the form of a woodblock print. The image is of a hardcover book, typeset and bound in traditional Western fashion. The book is open to a page that shows a comparison table of the English-to-Chinese transliteration system Xu developed in A, B, C....

In addtion, the words on the page seem to have been formed of a printed script of the Roman alphabet stringly reminiscent of calligraphy, but just like Xu's previous Book from the Sky, the are actually ersatz words. That is to say, the volume Xu calls "My Book," which from the outside seems to be a classic tome, is also empty within, impossible to read or comprehend.

The structure of My Book is similar to the earlier woodblock print Five Series of Repetitions, in that it also repeatedly uses the same block and reveals the process of carving the wood in stages. In this instance, the wood block itself is completed and printed — from an entirely unengraved black panel up to the image of "My Book" in its completed form, where it abruptly stops.