8 / Writing

• • Prato Haggadah, Folio 11rUnknown artist, Spain	For the GuggenheimJenny Holzer (American, b. 1950)	Poems with Floral DecorationKojima Soshin (Japanese, 1580–ca. 1656)	Lindisfarne Gospels, fol. 29 (Cotton MS, Nero D.IV)Attr. to Bishop Eadfrith of Lindisfarne (698–721), Northumbria (England)	Venus Table from the Dresden CodexMaya artist, Yucatán Peninsula probably, Mesoamerica	Leaf from a Qur’an ManuscriptUnknown artist, attr. to Spain
    OOFEd Ruscha (American, b. 1937)	Stela of MentuwoserEgyptian artist, Abydos possibly, Northern Upper Egypt	Quotations from Chairman MaoXu Bing (Chinese, b. 1955)	One and Three ChairsJoseph Kosuth (American, b. 1945)	Book Cover for Zang Tumb TumbFilippo Tommaso Marinetti (Italian, 1876–1944)	Graffiti TagFaro (Egyptian, active early 21st century)
    La Trahison des images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe)René Magritte (Belgian, 1898–1967)	Bamboo in the WindWu Zhen (Chinese, 1280–1354)	The Five ScrollsAaron Wolf Herlingen (Austrian, ca. 1700–ca. 1757)	Abstract Figures on PaperJohn J.B. Murry (Murray) (American, 1908–1988)	Biblia Latina (Latin Bible)Johann Gutenberg (German, ca. 1400–1468) (publisher)

expert perspective

Melissa Chiu Museum Director and Vice President for Global Art Programs, Asia Society

“

Xu Bing’s parents were both professors at Beida University, in Beijing. And he said that he spent most of his childhood in the library looking at books. So I think that this childhood has really impacted on his art practice more than anything else.

In 1975, when Xu Bing was twenty years old, he, like twelve million other youth, were sent to the countryside to live with farmers or peasants to be reeducated. And so, during this time, he created many newsletters for the villagers and was actively involved in kind of ideas of political consciousness. He also practiced his calligraphy.

China has a long tradition of writing and calligraphy, and calligraphy, in fact, is seen as an art form. In fact, it’s seen as one of the highest art forms, more so than the pictorial tradition in some respects.

Xu Bing, when he moved to the United States, developed this new English calligraphy. He has created a script which looks like a Chinese character—a Chinese word—but it can be read by English speakers. So he has created a work that is very much for an American audience to understand how Chinese words are put together and constructed. So that, I think, is a very unique contribution to how words might play a role in visual culture. He, like many other artists, adapted to his new living conditions being a Chinese man now living in the United States, but also created something that is also about trying to look at the universality of language. And so the new work that he’s creating right now is looking at icons, international icons, and trying to develop a language that, in fact, anybody can read, around the world, no matter what language you speak.”