Book from the Ground

Description:

Book. A graphic novel composed entirely of symbols and icons that are universally understood, by the Goldsen Archive’s A. D. White Professor-at-Large and Chinese artist, Xu Bing. Xu Bing spent seven years gathering materials and arranging thousands of pictograms to construct this readable story without words, an account of twenty-four hours in the life of "Mr. Black," a typical urban white-collar worker. The 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.

Attribution:

Bing, Xu

Publication Location:

China

Date:

2014

Cite As:

Xu Bing, Book from the Ground, book. China, 2014.