Cai Guo-Qiang - Head on

Cai Guo-Qiang, born in Fujian Province in 1957, may be the most widely known Chinese artist of his generation. He is now based in New York, where his work has been presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among other venues. He recently curated the Chinese Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale. And he conceived the works that appear in this book-within-a-book (a book inlaid inside a larger book, designed by Stefan Sagmeister) for the Deutsche Guggenheim. This project reflects both his own heritage and Berlin's, combining symbols of the Middle Kingdom with Western elements--notably gunpowder and fireworks with a stage set of a German house, which Cai blew sky high, videotaping the proceedings. Elsewhere a pack of 99 life-sized wolves barrels towards a glass wall: both bloodlust and transparency still seem topical half a century after World War II. Also includes a selection of earlier works.