Xu Bing Book From The Sky Analysis

Xu Bing is a renowned and proficient installation artist born and raised in China. He has meticulously created a captivating book that contains even more detail and profound meaning than what meets the eye with his installment Book from the Sky. This elegantly assembled installment has with great success made a notable impact on the art world by drawing in the attention of many scholars and intellectuals when Xu completed it in 1987. The attraction that these intellectuals have for Book from the Sky can be traced back to Xu Bing’s intentions for creating the installment. It was his desire was to create a book that appeared to be of antiquity and full of information, but when inspected closer would reveal that it is completely void of meaning. The focus of this research paper will be on the complex process by which Xu Bing invented the 4,000 meaningless Chinese characters, as well as further elaboration on the influences that lead to creating a book without meaning. I would first like to ensure your familiarity with the physical nature of the installment Book from the Sky. The installment is fairly large, taking up approximately 1500 square feet when displayed in a museum. The installment can be broken down into three main elements. The first and most mesmerizing portion of the installment is made up of several long, billowing scrolls suspended at either end of the ceiling. The scrolls are located in the center of the room, along
The fact that if one were not familiar with the Chinese language you might assume that the books are full of information recorded by past generations is a testament to the incredible work done by Xu Bing. Book from the Sky is an installment that is sure to grab your attention from the very first time viewing it, but a closer inspection of the book in order to reveal the deep meaning hiding behind each character will impress even the biggest