165 FIG. 5 (right): Spirit board, gope. Aimei village, lower Era River people, Kiwai language speakers (Gibaio dialect), Papua New Guinea. Early 19th century. Wood, pigment. H: 150 cm. De Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, inv. 2007.44.97, gift of Marcia and John Friede in honor of Diane Wilsey and Harry S. Parker III. Photo: John Bigelow Taylor. FIG. 4 (above): Unidentifi ed man and child with two titi ebiha. Photograph by Roy Hedlund, 1933. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. PSC 1977.2.51. the author and editor Virginia-Lee Webb, she writes about the history of photography in the region and the visual biographies that the images create of the boards. Victor Teicher, a contemporary collector, contributes an essay about his interest in traditional spirit boards. Additional essays by noted scholar Robert L. Welsch chronicle the encounters between Western visitors and the people of the Gulf District and the history of collecting. Welsch also contributes a second chapter on the signifi cance and meaning of spirit boards based on his anthropological research in the region. Thomas Schultze-Westrum, an ethnologist who collected a large number of spirit boards while working in the region, also contributes a chapter on the meaning of the boards. These days it is rare when a single book is published that defi nes an entire art genre, but that is the case here. It is the more impressive in that it is in large format and impeccably produced. The essays are engaging and soundly researched. This book will be a welcome addition to any art library. Embodied Spirits: Gope Boards from the Papuan Gulf Edited by Virginia-Lee Webb Published in English and French by 5 Continents Editions, 2016 24 x 35.5 cm, 356 pp, 210 color and black-and-white illustrations ISBN: 978-88-7439-705-1 (English) ISBN: 978-88-7439-711-2 (French) Hardcover, $140
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