A survey of the social life, customs, arts, technology, worldview and religion of the Edo of West Africa. Richly illustrated with colour photographs. Includes a guide to further reading and a glossary. Index, map, 64pp, USA. ROSEN PUBLISHING COMPANY, 0823919854

Life, views, politics and conversations through the words and actions of a women market seller set in a Yoruba market in the Republic of Benin. A sequel to The Water House. UK. REX COLLINGS, 0860362132

In Benin, with its rich spiritual traditions of animism, the photograph came to play a fascinating role in the rituals of death. This unique collection of portrait photography from the 1960s and 1970s records a people caught between a pre-colonial past and a post-colonial future. For many of the people in the photographs it would be their first and last encounter with a photogra-pher. Amongst the weddings and communions, the courting couples and proud parents, lie startling images of revenants and juju men; voodoo priests and priestesses; thieves and assassins; prostitutes and pimps - and an extraordinary sequence of 'apres-mort' or death bed portraits. 136pp, UK. PHAIDON PRESS LIMITED.

A photographic record of Irving Penn's trip to Dahomey in 1967. As well as a selection of studio portraits commissioned by Vogue magazine, this volume collects photographs of Legba shrines taking in a small village in the south of the country. Includes an introduction by Anne Wilkes Tucker and an essay entitled a Quest for Beauty in Dahomey by Jacques Maquet. 79pp, GERMANY. ART BOOKS INTERNATIONAL LTD, 3775714499

A photographic volume looking at voodoo and its practitioners in Benin. The author conceived the work as a documentary of the life story of one of Benin's most venerated voodoo high priests, Mahounon. Illustrated with b/w photographs and introduced by film maker Wim Wenders. Text in English, German and French. 224pp, UK. PRESTEL, 3791329839