Big words might scare him silly, but just look Wu's laughing now

In a 1985 work titled The Butterfly of Zhuangzi is a Pair of Scissors, what appear to be Chinese characters on a pitch black canvas turn out to be merely strokes of red oil paint. The only character that has any meaning says 'nirvana'.

A decade later, the medium may have changed, but the same edginess is evident. A photo shows a family picnicking just a few feet away from a nuclear power plant.

Welcome to the world of Wu Shanzhuan - possibly China's best-known conceptual artist. The 45-year-old from Zhoushan was closely associated with the mainland's Political Pop movement of the 1990s. His body of work includes paintings, installation art, performance, photos and drawings.

This Friday, Wu will launch his first book, the bilingual Red Humour International, published by the Asia Art Archive. But don't ask him what it's about because you're unlikely to get a straight answer. Wu can be unpredictable and erratic.

'I don't really care about what people think about my work and take away from it,' says Wu, who is now based in Hamburg. 'I don't define it anyway. Once it's done, I leave it behind. My work stands on its own and there's no word really to describe it. I call it 'Wu's thing'.

'I'm afraid of being serious. I'm afraid of responsibility - that word to me is scary. I always look back on my work, on life, with humour. So the book is Red Humour International. I don't understand these serious, serious artists. Why? Take it easy.'

The book, designed by Ou Nign, includes unpublished material and commissioned texts by critics such as Gao Minglu, Ursula Panhans-Buhler and Qiu Zhijie. Long-time collaborator Inga Svala Thorsdottir - who was featured in a 1993 video still and many of Wu's photos - also helped out.