A chronicle of the Chinese contemporary artist’s interactive piece on prisoners of conscience, human rights, and the power of art and letter writing.

Internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei works at the intersection of art and politics. In 2014, he created @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz, an exhibition that engaged nearly 900,000 visitors in a conversation about human rights and freedom of expression. One of the artworks included was Yours Truly. This installation invited visitors to write postcards to prisoners of conscience around the world. On pre-addressed cards depicting the national birds and flowers of the countries where each prisoner was held, visitors wrote messages of hope, humor, and solidarity. In total, 92,829 postcards were written and sent.

Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly delves into this astonishing project and invites you to engage with a work of art and a cause. Essays and a statement from the artists himself give a wider artistic and political context. In candid and heartfelt testimonials, five former prisoners and their loved ones—Ahmed Maher, Irom Sharmila Chanu, John Kiriakou, Chelsea Manning, and the family of Ebrahim Sharif Al Sayed—reflect on experiences of activism and detainment, and share the impact of receiving hundreds of postcards from people they would never meet. And photographs from the exhibition show the ordinary people who participated in the projects and some of the messages they wrote.

This book is a visually stunning document, an inspiring call-to-arms, and a testament to the power of art to transform lives.

David Spalding

Books