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Book from the Ground: from point to point (The MIT Press) Hardcover – February 7, 2014

by Bing Xu (Author)

11 customer reviews

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—

A book without words, recounting a day in the life of an office worker, told completely in the symbols, icons, and logos of modern life. Twenty years ago I made Book from the Sky, a book of illegible Chinese characters that no one could read. Now I have created Book from the Ground, a book that anyone can read.―Xu BingFollowing his classic work Book from the Sky, the Chinese artist Xu Bing presents a new graphic novel―one composed entirely of symbols and icons that are universally understood. Xu Bing spent seven years gathering materials, experimenting, revising, and arranging thousands of pictograms to construct the narrative of Book from the Ground. The result is a readable story without words, an account of twenty-four hours in the life of “Mr. Black,” a typical urban white-collar worker.Our protagonist's day begins with wake-up calls from a nearby bird and his bedside alarm clock; it continues through tooth-brushing, coffee-making, TV-watching, and cat-feeding. He commutes to his job on the subway, works in his office, ponders various fast-food options for lunch, waits in line for the bathroom, daydreams, sends flowers, socializes after work, goes home, kills a mosquito, goes to bed, sleeps, and gets up the next morning to do it all over again. His day is recounted with meticulous and intimate detail, and reads like a postmodern, post-textual riff on James Joyce's account of Bloom's peregrinations in Ulysses. But Xu Bing's narrative, using an exclusively visual language, could be published anywhere, without translation or explication; anyone with experience in contemporary life―anyone who has internalized the icons and logos of modernity, from smiley faces to transit maps to menus―can understand it.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

While this book might turn off readers looking to escape into a more conventional narrative, anyone interested in experimental fiction, modern art, or a little bit of challenge will be delighted.―Library Journal

About the Author

Xu Bing is an internationally acclaimed artist whose work has been shown and collected by museums and galleries including the National Art Museum of China; the British Museum; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Museum of Modern Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Museum. He is a recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant and is currently serving as Vice President of the Central Academy of Art, Beijing. Based in Beijing, he maintains a studio in Brooklyn.

Series: The MIT Press
Hardcover: 128 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (February 7, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262027089
ISBN-13: 978-0262027083
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 8.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 11 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #360,927 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #299 in Books > Arts & Photography > Individual Artists > Artists' Books
- #2926 in Books > Arts & Photography > History & Criticism > History
- #3579 in Books > Arts & Photography > Graphic Design

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Larry G. Bierman

Book As Art

February 26, 2014

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Lynn Xu and her husband Joshua Edwards presented their poetry at the University of Oklahoma this past January. Lynn Xu mentioned her time as an assistant to Xu Bing and a little about his Sky Book. I was facsinated. Not only did I order a copy of The Art of Xu Bing, but I pre-ordered Book for the Groud: from point to point.

I received my copy and have "read" it once. Beautifully realized by MIT Press, the book is at once daunting and completely accessible.

Book people tend to be verbal. Since I was a child I have been interested in exactly what thought is and how thinking takes place. It took me years to realize that thought is not exclusively verbal, that perhaps the first from of communication, of
expressive thought, was dance.

Xu Bing's new book is phenomenal. While the book can be translated into words as you read it--you can tell the story to yourself, the pictographic nature of it allows the "reader" to experience the book without verbalizing anything.The bookbecomes a practice in symbolic thought through imagery, almost like calculas.

All of this is very heady stuff, but ultimately it is fun. I laughed, not only because the man, the main character, finds himself in funny situations but because the way the book enters the brain tickles.Anyone who appreciates eye-candy will find this book worth a look or two.

I particularly like the fact the book is bound with a ribbon marker.

This is truly book as art. Simply wonderful!

10 people found this helpful

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September 23, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I wanted to get another copy but forgot the name of the book since it is only mentioned on the back cover. My goddaughter 's three children went crazy over it when i handed it over to the 12 yo boy after i had finished it on the plane. The 6 yo girl loved it as well as the 8 yo girl and their dad. It was a great hit!!

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Five Stars

June 13, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Amazing concept and execution. Fantastic!

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October 27, 2014

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Rather curious,quite elegant and clean visually

2 people found this helpful

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September 5, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

very creative!

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November 17, 2014

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Definitely a surprise present! :)

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tedlab

there are no words to describe it

May 14, 2014

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This is the most interesting book I can remember encountering, ever.

If I could invest in this somehow, I would buy all the stock.

I love this thing: I have bought 6 copies for friends. Incredible!!

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Dawn

I highly recommend it.

October 19, 2017

Format: Hardcover

This is a fascinating reading experience. It's not a gripping story, but to complain about that is to miss the point. Rather, it is impossible to read this book without reflecting on the nature of reading itself. Do I 'translate' the pictograms to my native language or take them in pictorially? Why when I giggle at something amusing does the sound of my own voice surprise me? How much am I embellishing the tale as I take it in? How much does the author want me to embellish? How much is necessary? How much experience do we need to share for symbols to make sense to both of us? Should I feel depressed by the amount of mental content that comes attached to a corporate logo? As a piece of thoughtful, accessible, participatory art, I highly recommend it.

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Most recent customer reviews

Pauline Benson

This felt good. The story and the experience are both fun

I could feel my mind working in a different way to "read" this book. This felt good. The story and the experience are both fun.

Published 1 year ago

Pattydoesjigsawpuzzles

Love this book

Brought two and kept one for myself. Love figuring out the emoji symbols. The new wave of reading another language in symbols.

Published on January 25, 2016

Andrew Cooke

Disappointing

I was really hoping for more from this book. It does indeed tell a story in graphical terms, but it could have been so much better:

First, the story itself is not...Read more

Published on October 3, 2015

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