Guro: Masks, Performances, and Master Carvers in Ivory Coast
This monograph with a capitalM—at over 500 pages and with 400 color illustrations—presents an exhaustive look at mask culture in Guro society. Fischer (former director, Museum Rietberg, Zurich) takes an ethnographic approach to his research on Guro masks, discussing how they are used in performances and what they represent to the Guro people. Fischer also focuses on the early Guro masters of mask carving and living sculptors. Some of the most fascinating chapters combine artist interviews and photographs to document carving techniques. Fischer translates and expands his earlierDie Kunst der Guro, Elfenbeinküste; both books are based on fieldwork in Guro from 1975 and 1984. Other good publications that examine African masks include Peter Stepan'sSpirits Speak: A Celebration of African Masksand Iris Hahner-Herzog and others'African Masks: The Barbier-Mueller Collection, but none focuses so thoroughly on the Guro people as Fischer's book. Recommended for all collections (both anthropological and art historical) that include cultural objects from the Ivory Coast.—Kraig Binkowski, Yale Ctr. for British Art, New Haven, CTCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.