Radical Return Catalog — Mary Y. Yang

Writing, editing, book designRadical Return catalog

Edited by Mary Y. Yang and Zhongkai Li

Published by Radical Characters, IS A Gallery, Boston University Art Galleries 2022
Bilingual (Chinese and English)

Launched at A Plus A Gallery, Venice, Italy, 2022In the permanent collection of cultural and academic institutions, including the National Museum of Chinese Writing (Anyang, China), Letterform Archive (San Francisco, CA), Asia Art Archive in America (Brooklyn, NY) and Tufts University Special Collections (Boston, MA)

Radical Return Exhibition catalog for Radical Return 《文字的回返》, the first exhibition presented by Radical Characters.

The exhibition, simultaneously exhibited in 2021 at the Boston University Art Galleries in Boston, Massachusetts, and at IS A GALLERY in Shanghai, China, invited participants from around the world to use the Chinese character “回” (huí) or “return” as a grid—visually or conceptually—to frame submissions. The selected work, which appears in this catalog, features 36 Chinese and Chinese American artists and graphic designers who explore acts of return through language, tradition, memory, identity, and history. Working across a range of media, these designers and artists embrace, challenge, and expand what it means to "return" in their artistic practice and in relation to their positions in the world today.

Read about the exhibition

✸ Funded by a Mass Cultural Council grant
✸ Communication Arts Design Award for exhibition design