Xu Bing : Word Alchemy

Distributed by University Press of Florida on behalf of Asia Society Texas

Born in China and now working in both Brooklyn and Beijing, artist Xu Bing is widely considered to be one of the most important artists to emerge from China in the 20th century. Focusing on the artist’s longstanding engagement with words and language, Word Alchemy was the most comprehensive exhibition on this theme so far, and approximately one-third of the objects in the exhibition are being shown in the U.S. for the first time.

Published on the occasion of this landmark exhibition at Asia Society Texas, this catalogue assembles more than 50 of Xu Bing’s most important woodcut prints, videos, drawings, installations, and other ephemera representing almost 50 years of the artist’s creative output. Starting with Xu’s early engagements with social realism and Western art historical traditions alike, the exhibition charts the evolution of the artist’s linguistic experiments that challenge and expand not only the history of Chinese landscape painting, but the canons of contemporary art.

Highlights of the book include a new essay by Xu Bing, an interview between the artist and curator Susan L. Beningson, as well as several newly commissioned essays by the field's leading scholars and curators. The volume features vivid reproductions of Xu Bing’s early works, never-before-exhibited notebooks, landmark prints including the Series of Repetitions handscroll, a new Background Story with a connection to Zhao Mengfu’s famous Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains handscroll, a new Texas-themed Square Word Calligraphy, and a new installation of Monkeys Grasp for the Moon in Asia Society Texas' Fayez Sarofim Grand Hall.