The Guggenheim exhibition catalogue Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe has won the 2008 George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award, which recognizes outstanding publications in visual arts and architecture.

Established by the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) in 1980, the annual award honors the memory of George Wittenborn (1905–1974), a New York art book dealer and publisher who was a strong supporter of ARLIS/NA. Eligible titles are evaluated in the categories of content, documentation, layout, format, and overall aesthetic quality.

The catalogue was published on the occasion of a comprehensive exhibition of work by the Chinese-born artist Cai Guo-Qiang, organized by Thomas Krens, former Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator of Asian Art at the Guggenheim Museum. Designed by Miko McGinty and Rita Jules, the book features over 230 illustrations, and offers a detailed analysis and interpretation of Cai’s art, including his innovative use of gunpowder in drawings and explosion events, as well as an extensive chronology, exhibition history, and bibliography. It includes essays by David Joselit, Chair, Department of Art History, Yale University; Miwon Kwon, Associate Professor of Art History, University of California, Los Angeles; and Wang Hui, Research Professor, Modern Chinese Intellectual History, Tsinghua University, Beijing.

The award was presented during the annual ARLIS/NA national conference in Indianapolis on Friday, April 17. On naming the Guggenheim publication, the award committee said, "Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe excels in all of the required categories of content, documentation, layout, and format. . . . It provides an outstanding example of the scholarship and design that the award was created to recognize."

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