The most critically addressed issue in Xu Bing's work is the meaningless yet distinctively Chinese texts that he creates. Words convey meaning, and writing needs clarity. What lucidity do these nonsense characters possess as a book from the sky? Enlightenment from above.
I like his attention to the medium that he is working with, namely paper.
In this particular installation photograph you can see how the artist
is attentive to the paper's texture and letting the physical draping yet
resilient qualities of the bound paper (book) define and create the wave-like
aesthetic of the installation (the floor part of it). The scroll that
hangs from above compliments the floor component with its own elegant
curve, dicated by the weight of the paper. Most endearingly, it takes
into consideration paper's translucency, emphasizing the obcurity of language--
which I suppose is one of Xu Bing's ideological aims in creating these
nonsense characters-- while giving the indecipherable
texts an ironic sense of luminosity.