It is now widely recognized that much of African art has been created to sustain social harmony, improve living conditions, and encourage political cohesion. The varied functions of African works have been addressed in numerous exhibitions and books, yet for our times, there may be no topic more thought-provoking and inspiring than the resilient roles that African artworks play in healing and crisis management. Art and Oracle: African Art and Rituals of Divination, published in conjunction with the exhibition Art and Oracle: Spirit Voices of Africa, explores the complex relationships between art and divination in a range of cultural contexts. The book, like the exhibition, presents some of Africa’s most outstanding works of art, articulating how they facilitate divinatory practices across the continent. Divination attempts to discern the causes of tragedy or explain how people’s lives can be changed by misfortune, providing hope, direction, and resolution in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. In most African cultures, divination is associated with the reconstruction of past events in order to interpret the present; in a few others, it is directed toward prophecy. Through divination, ancestors and other spirits often impart wisdom and guidance. The preoccupations underlying African divinatory practices are universal...