The Brightest Light Runs Too Fast is the new book by Chinese artist Ren Hang published by Editions Bessard. Not unlike many of Bessard Editions’ previous publications, Hang’s book is a unique and collectible object produced in a small print run and sold out quickly.

The most original quality of this publication is its thermal cover image that will only appear with the application of heat. A trifold interior contains a signed c-print and die-cut circle reveals the edition number of 500 copies. Ren Hang has been called “the Chinese Ryan McGinley”. His work in The Brightest Light Runs Too Fast utilizes the human body, playing on our ideas of eroticism and calling them into question by placing the body in awkward positions, capturing exaggerated movements and carefully arranged gestures. The human body becomes objectified like an element in a still life; the interactions of the subjects with each other and with the camera become about absurdity, abstraction and novelty creating new shapes, forms and configurations with the human body.