Prestel publishes the most extensive and authoritative range of coffee-table titles about African art.

The climax of many African religious and secular celebrations is the entrance of the masks. The masks are paraded with awe-inspiring solemnity, in wild ecstasy, or with provocative gestures to terrify the audience. Masks are the faces of higher beings --- of spirits, gods, and, above all, of ancestors. When the dancer dons his mask, he ceases to be himself and becomes a conduit for supernatural powers.