"This illustrated catalogue focuses on the ceramic works of the Casas Grandes region of northwest Mexico, which flourished at the ancient site of Paquime, around A.D. 1280-1450." "In the accompanying essays, expert art historians and an artist-teacher discuss the complex imagery of approximately 80 Casas Grandes vessels with 60 pieces representing other major styles of the Greater Southwest. Superb examples show polychromatic designs of real and mythological animals, together with abstract human figures and remarkably varied geometries, demonstrating the imaginative complexity and exceptional achievement of the Casas Grandes potters. Certain motifs reflect affinities with distant Mesoamerica, yet the authors show that these forms were absorbed into a visual vocabulary that reflected the unique artistic and cosmological outlook of Casas Grandes, within the native Southwestern cultural tradition."--BOOK JACKET.