Coffee-table tribute to the colorful, toe-tapping tribes of Africa. “From 1945 to 1985, from Senegal to the Congo Basin, from the Sahara to the Gulf of Benin, Michel Huet photographed African life, especially the age-old rituals and ceremonies enacted to the beat of drums, the chant of voices and the urgent movement of bodies. His unique images, accompanied by ethnographer Claude Savary’s sensitive texts, are a stunning testimonial to these rapidly vanishing cultural traditions as well as a lasting document of the essence of African dance.” Includes the Dogan, who tell the mythical story of mankind in their 3-meter-high painted plank masks; the Samo, in their cowry-shell-and-feather rain-making costumes; and the Bwa people of Boni, in their bushy garb of leaves and branches, cleansing the world of man’s impurities. GR

Publisher: Abrams
Hardback: 172 pages
Illustrated

Explains “what is known about this enigmatic island in the South Pacific—and what isn’t.” Also reveals “some tantalizing theories” about the brooding statues. “One of the great problems that dominate Easter Island archeologically is the question of how the statues were moved to the ahu, some of which are miles from the quarry… Some writers have suggested that a layer of sweet potatoes and yams was put under the statues… Others have said that wooden rollers were used… The most surprising thing is the unhesitating reply of all the natives—the statues were moved by mana… It is a mistake to smile at this kind of talk… What if certain men at a certain period were able to make use of electromagnetic or anti-gravitational forces? It is an extraordinary concept, but no more so than that of squashed yams.” GR

Publisher: Abrams
Paperback: 144 pages
Illustrated

If an army marches on its stomach, then this coffee-table ode to the enamel arts shows that a civilization progresses on its dental work. Dentistry is an ancient practice—Mayan skulls of the 9th century show inlays of jade and turquoise, and molars bound together with gold wire have been excavated from Old Kingdom sites in Egypt. The frontspiece of a lost Arabic manuscript of the 13th century shows a dentist caring for a woman with a toothache. He is prescribing a medicinal plant growing between them as a remedy for relief. The barber to the King of Scotland in 1503 had simple dental care to the King’s court, offering hot irons on a tooth for pain and cosmetic tooth filing. By the 1880s, deluxe denture bases could be designed with a palate of swagged gold-and-porcelain teeth set in Vulcanite. At the same time, newly established American dental schools didn’t admit women. America’s first female dentist was Emeline Roberts, who began pulling teeth alongside her husband in 1859. She was eventually elected to membership in the Connecticut State Dental Society—34 years after she first began her practice. GR

Publisher: Abrams
Hardback: 320 pages
Illustrated

Superdeluxe, revised and updated souvenir story of the Disney Empire, from the Alice comedies of 1923 (the cheerful cheese-eater was Walt’s third idea), to Hercules, the animated feature now in production. Here are the hits (Snow White, The Little Mermaid), the flops (Fantasia, Black Cauldron), the innovations (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Mary Poppins), the panic years (WW II, the unions), the “nine old men,” the Eisner “revolution,” the parks, the rides, Paris Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, the works. Loaded with background art, preliminary character sketches, and anecdotes, like this critique of Fantasia: “Frank Lloyd Wright was shown sections of the movie and was outspoken in his dislike for it. It was absurd, in his opinion, to illustrate music.” GR

Publisher: Abrams
Hardback: 464 pages
Illustrated

The German Art Association pulled all the “decaying foulness” of modern art out of the museums and exhibited the best examples of “the hunchbacked idiots” in a show titled “Degenerate Art” in 1937. It was an unexpected smash. Wait till they see the good stuff, thought Adolf. So he got all his volk art together in the “Great German Art Exhibition 1939.” “How are we to judge this art?” asks the author. “The eye of the art historian is not enough. Our emotional response to the art produced under Hitler is overshadowed by history… Today, with all the knowledge we have of the horror of the Third Reich, it is impossible to look at these pictures without remembering their actual function. Which is ironically what the Nazis intended. Our suspicion that a wicked regime produces only inferior art is legitimate and widespread. There is evidence for this when faced with the overwhelming mediocrity of the artwork which was exhibited.” GR

Publisher: Abrams
Paperback: 332 pages
Illustrated

A beautifully packaged, full-scale monograph exploring Gorey’s roles as artist, illustrator, writer and theater designer. Includes perennial Gorey favorites The Doubtful Guest and The Fatal Lozenge as well as set and costume designs for Dracula and illustrations for such books as Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot. Contains a lengthy interview by Clifford Ross in which the artist speaks of his many and varied interests, his creative process and his wide-ranging knowledge of art. Additionally, art critic Karen Wilkins provides a lengthy exploration of Gorey’s world—seductive, mysterious, eccentric, macabre—with particular attention paid to the evolution and sources of the artist’s style within the high and popular traditions of narrative art. Also includes over 50 pages of plates (some in color), an artist’s chronology and bibliography. An excellent introduction for the uninitiated and a must-have for collectors, The World of Edward Gorey is an intelligently executed, passionate appreciation of this masterfully bizarre artist and writer. MDG

Publisher: Abrams
Hardback: 192 pages
Illustrated