A set of conversations between Ai Weiwei and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, recorded across several years on practice.

Ai moves constantly between object and system. A building becomes a question about authority; a blog becomes a question about speech; an exhibition becomes a question about who gets to define public reality. The interviews also catch him at a particularly charged moment, around the Beijing Olympics and the rapid expansion of his international profile, when architecture, activism and digital culture were beginning to collapse into one field.

Short, accessible, and much sharper than the generic “artist interview” format suggests. Good for readers interested in contemporary art, architecture, censorship, media, China, and the politics of cultural production.

Edition & condition: Penguin Special, 2011. Paperback. Light cover wear and creasing; internally clean and sound. Very good condition.