“An artist’s ultimate work is the completion of a self-contained world,” according to Xu Bing. On the occasion of Xu’s retrospective “Thought and Method,” which launched at Beijing’s UCCA Center for Contemporary Art before touring to Jakarta’s Museum MACAN, ArtAsiaPacific sat down with the artist to reflect on his over-four-decade-long career. In this interview, Xu muses on the meandering trajectories of his artistic practice, from his iconic Book from the Sky (1987–91) installation, which speaks to the shifts in China’s political and linguistic systems experienced by his generation, to his explorations of art’s broader role in society with the Forest Project (2014).