SLEEPING BEAUTIES: The Jerome L. Joss Collection...

SLEEPING BEAUTIES: The Jerome L. Joss Collection of African Headrests at UCLA by William J. Dewey (Fowler Museum of Cultural History/University of California Press: $27 . ; 215 pp., paperback original). The catalogue of an exhibit currently on display at UCLA, “Sleeping Beauties” surveys the wooden headrests used in many tropical countries: They’re cooler than pillows and easier on elaborate coiffures. Western audiences are more likely to appreciate these objects as vivid miniature sculptures than as functional objects. However in one of the accompanying essays, the author notes that the headrests are no less comfortable than the woven mats most rural Africans use as beds.