 After spending some time in San Francisco, he moved to New York, and put his art work aside for a year while he learned English, and served as artist-in-residence at the University of Minnesota for a few months.Turning from his work on language, Gu developed an interest in bodily materials, and in understanding humanity, across ethnic and national boundaries, through hair and other bodily substances.One exhibit he produced, organized around sanitary napkins sent to him by women from sixty countries, was attacked by feminist movements and refused to be shown at every venue he approached.