Reviews

African art scholar and West L.A. gallery owner Wolfe has performed a singularly stunning achievement by both introducing and cataloging over 350 luridly colorful examples of the unique way of advertising Hollywood and Hong Kong films in Ghana. Produced on recycled canvas flour sacks that have been stitched together, the posters were created mostly between 1985 and 1996 by a small group of artists to promote the movies shown in theaters and video clubs. To help elucidate this garish West African refraction of American pop culture, Wolfe has assembled numerous essays from a critically diverse array of artists, scholars, and filmmakers. Ghanaians, it quickly becomes apparent, are not chick-flick fans. The posters are divided among six film genres, including sf and fantasy, action and adventure, war and urban commandos, horror, comedy and drama, and martial arts. Writer and director Walter Hill nails it dead-on in his introduction to the action and adventure section when he writes, "To be brutally honest, many of these posters are more interesting than the films." Along with many lush, full-page representations of the posters, Wolfe includes photographs of and statements from the artists. In both idea and execution, Dilettante Press is carving a wonderfully quirky niche for itself in mainstream popular culture publishing with this visual treasure. Despite its seemingly narrow academic bent, this book is unconditionally and enthusiastically recommended for all pop culture collections. Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.