Xu Bing’s “Book from the Sky” falls from the ceiling.

As we enter the Chinese Year of the Goat (or Sheep or Ram – it took John Oliver’s HBO show to clarify for us that the ancient word yang doesn’t differentiate much between these hoofed animals), it is fitting that the Frost Art Museum FIU is showcasing the work of Xu Bing.

In particular, the museum is highlighting the massive installation “Book from the Sky,” first unveiled in China in 1988 and since then becoming an iconic piece representing contemporary art from that fast-rising art center. “Book” consists of 160 volumes of handmade woodbloc- printed books and huge scrolls filled with nonsensical words and characters, hanging from the ceiling and plastering the walls. In fact, it is so large that not many museums have been able to exhibit it in its entirety (the MET in New York did so in 2013).

Xu Bing’s exploration of the power of words.

The exhibit actually bookends, as it were, the Frost Museum’s series featuring solo shows from major Chinese artists, which started with Simon Ma and continued with photographer Wang Qingsong during Art Basel. This series is now completed with Xu Bing’s chapter.

Xu Bing was a product of the Cultural Revolution in China, when the Communist government was intent on wiping out past history and cultural values and inventing new ones. Xu’s choice of unintelligible words – like propaganda – and clear references to China’s traditional calligraphy and ink paintings are obviously intentional. But as awesome as “Book” is, there are many other treats here as well. Xu has made “classroom” installations, where the words and characters again are not what they seem. And in one case, a Chinese landscape painting is revealed to be composed of characters, the words for water and mountain.

The artist himself represents the rapid transformation occurring in his native land. After the Tiananmen Square massacre, he moved to New York, receiving the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship, among others. But in 2007, he was invited back home to become vice president of Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, and currently divides his time between that city and New York. The scope of the man’s life and his art is breathtaking.

“Xu Bing: Writing Between Heaven and Earth” runs through May 24 at the Frost Art Museum FIU, 10975 S.W. 17th St., Miami; 305-348-2890; thefrost.fiu.edu.