Xu Bing (Chinese, born 1955), Square Word Calligraphy: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Walt Whitman, 2018. Ink on paper, a (mounted): 124 × 227 cm; a (unmounted): 99 × 188 cm; b (mounted): 124 × 227 cm; b (unmounted): 99 × 188 cm; frame (a): 239.6 × 132.9 × 6.4 cm; frame (b): 239.7 × 132.7 × 6.4 cm. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Xu Bing to the Brooklyn Museum in honor of his father, 2018.24a-b. © artist or artist's estate.

This painting was created by Xu Bing specifically for the Brooklyn Museum’s new galleries for the Arts of China. The painting reads from left to right, following English word order, and from top to bottom in columns, as in traditional Chinese texts. It also includes an artist’s seal using Square Word Calligraphy, in red ink. The work is composed of a title and colophon, followed by the first verse of “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” by the poet Walt Whitman.

It reads:

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,

By Walt Whitman Calligraphy by Xu Bing

An artist who used to live in Brooklyn. Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face!

Clouds of the west—sun there half an hour high—I see you also face to face.

Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me!

On the ferry-boats the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home, are

more curious to me than you suppose, And you that shall cross from shore to shore

years hence are more to me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.