Xu Bing

In the exhibitions of the Tobacco Project Duke 2000, the Tobacco Project Shanghai 2004, and the Tobacco Project Virginia 2011 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Chinese artist Xu Bing explored the history, materials, behavior, and signs and symbols of tobacco through his creations of art objects made of cigarettes, tobacco leaves, cigarette boxes, advertisements, and other tobacco and cigarette ephemera. Some examples include whole tobacco leaves printed with text, compressed blocks of dried tobacco embossed with cigarette slogans, and a tiger-print rug made of cigarettes. In addition to color photos of installations and art objects on every page, the book includes essays on the project and its context, the artist's life and career, the steps of the artist's research and production processes, and the role of Colonial Virginia in the global tobacco trade 1612-1776. The book also provides a timeline of the project and an artist's biography. Ravenal is curator of modern and contemporary art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The book is distributed in the US by the University of Virginia Press. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Reiko Tomii is an independent art historian and curator living in New York City. John B. Ravenal is the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Wu Hung is Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago. Lydia Liu is Wu Tsun Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. Edward Melillo is Assistant Professor of History and Environmental Studies at Amherst College.