Masks and the Art of Expression

Description: Features 153 color illustrations. ''Masks -- found in Greek drama and African imitation rites, in the European carnival and the battle preparations of New Guinea -- exert a powerful fascination. The use of masks raises questions of identity and possession, reality and artifice, the natural and the supernatural. Masks are a near-universal phenomenon, but the uses and meanings of masquerade vary greatly among cultures. Here, through revealing texts and a wide range of illustrations, a team of experts discusses the disparate traditions surrounding masks in eight principal areas: Africa, Oceania, Latin America, the Pacific Northwest, Japan, classical Greece and Rome, Egypt and Europe.'' BINDING/CONDITION: black cloth binding with gilt spine text; a Fine book, with a Fine dust jacket; the jacket has 'French folds' (folded over top and bottom edges). bibliography, index. 4to (about0 11 inches tall). 224 pages.