African Aesthetics: The Carlo Monzino Collection

This collection, begun in the early 1960s by Italian businessman Carlo Monzino, was chosen with an eye toward esthetic merit, not for archeological or sociological reasons, and its taste shows. The works are reproduced according to tribe, and a detailed caption accompanies each photograph. Most astonishing is ""The Black Venus,'' a reliquary ``guardian figure . . . not expected to duplicate the appearance of actual people but rather to express symbolically a central idea about human beings''not unlike the notion behind most modern Western art. This book is superlative, with enlightening documentation and exceptional photography. (June)