中國藝術家徐冰 1994 年得到靈感將英文單字寫成漢字形象, 稱之為「英文方塊字」, 字母和字的順序按如下規定:

(一) 從上到下.

(二) 從左到右.

(三) 如單字內有重疊的字母, 從外廓到內.

他的英文名字 Xu Bing 用到上述三個規則可做示範: 

他用「英文方塊字」創作「新英文書法」, 改寫美國詩人 Walt Whitman 的詩《Crossing Brooklyn Ferry》:

這帖書法的傳統英文全文:

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,

By Walt Whitman

Calligraphy by Xu Bing

An artist who used to live in Brooklyn.

Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face!

Clouds of the west—sun there half an hour

high—I see you also face to face.

Crowds of men and women attired in the

usual costumes, how curious you are to me!

On the ferry-boats the hundreds and

hundreds that cross, returning home, are

more curious to me than you suppose,

And you that shall cross from shore to shore

years hence are more to me, and more in my

meditations, than you might suppose.

我覺得欣賞的人能否清楚讀出每個方塊字應該不是要點, 例如 (無關兩者美術的優劣) 我非常喜愛懷素的草書但是一個字也看不懂, 不過還是好奇的查看一下. 從左上角讀起, 第一行上方三個字是詩的標題 Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, 下面三個較小的字 (分兩行): by (左) Walt Whitman (右). 再往下是另一組小字 (分兩行): Calligraphy by Xu Bing (左) An artist who used to live in Brooklyn (右). 從左邊算起第二行開始是詩的全文, 第一個字 flood, 最右下角是詩的最後一個字 suppose, 另有紅色的標點符號斷句.