Oxford Dictionary: Bird Definition

Xu Bing

born 1955

Oxford Dictionary: Bird Definition, 1994–1996

Material/technique: ink; "grass" paper (mao bian)

Dimensions:
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 48.9 x 271.8 cm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 19 1/4 x 107 1/2 in

Credit line: Gift of Arthur V. Neis

Accession number: 2008.0015

Not on display

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Archive Label: "From the Way of Writing to the Weight of Writing, " 2007 Oxford Dictionary: Bird Definition is an elaboration of Xu Bing's concept of Square-Word Calligraphy (see his Introduction to Square-Word Calligraphy, also exhibited here). The work was a study for Living Word 2, an installation in which renditions of "bird" rise from the floor to the ceiling as they change from word to pictogram to the form of a bird in flight. In the study, each stage of this migration is set down in a different font or script style moving from modern to ancient, thus connecting a pictographic writing system with the English alphabet.