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• 1 media/16628213630_aef542bcb3_z.jpg 2016-12-06T09:58:54-08:00 Unreadable Text: Book from the Sky 15 image_header 358356 2016-12-11T21:33:13-08:00 A precursor to Book from the Ground, Xu Bing comprises his 1987 Book from the Sky entirely of self-generated Chinese-esque characters. Around 4,000 characters were created from elements of Chinese characters, fashioned to look authentic, and carved into wooden blocks to be stamped into the book. Each character feels sickeningly familiar, and the utter inundation of unreadable text forms a sense of lost hopelessness--a top-down flood instituted by some higher being. The contrast and contradiction of the proletarian distribution method (woodblock) to the exclusive, unreadable, language of the deities continues to strike viewers.