In this richly illustrated and intriguing volume, the editors have brought together an interdisciplinary, multinational team of 29 scholars whose contributions in the foreword, introduction, epilogue, and 13 chapters provide a highly informative look at colors and pigments and the range of surfaces—from bodies to codices—that they adorn. One of its most impressive aspects is the extent to which it brings together a variety of disciplines to address the problem of color, allowing for an analysis of the chemistry of pigments to be interwoven with discussion of the symbolism of specific colors. For this reason, it will be a useful text across multiple contexts and disciplines. Judging from the volume's title, one might conclude that it deals primarily with color, but it offers equally fascinating treatments of how color interacted with scent and played a key role in therapeutic and medicinal practices. These issues are not often considered, and their inclusion here extends the discussion well beyond the optic to open powerful ways of approaching materials that, when considered at all, tend to be seen largely through an iconographic lens. Although each chapter deserves its own commentary, this review's space constraints require a focus on the general contours of the book.

Part I, “Coloring Alive and Dead Bodies,” primarily discusses the use of colors as applied to actual bodies, with a strong focus on mortuary contexts. It also deals with cosmetics and the medicinal use of colors and pigments. This topic is particularly thought provoking, because it suggests the possible significance of particular colors that transcends normative readings of imagery or of the use of colors in mortuary contexts, opening paths to meaning that until now have remained relatively closed. Chapters 2–4 discuss the results of the physicochemical analysis of Mesoamerican body colors and their cultural significance. Chapter 2 uses pigment data from burials located in the Teopancazco neighborhood of Teotihuacan to address their aromatic, therapeutic, and medicinal roles. This discussion connects with Chapters 6 and 7, which also address body ornamentation that appears to have served roles ranging from therapeutic and cosmetic to the presentation of the social body. Chapter 5 deals with body color and adornment in the murals at Chichén Itzá; those murals’ use of color in representations of socially complex scenes touches both on the painted bodies of Part I and anticipates the focus on codices in Part II.

Part II, “Illuminating Animal and Vegetal Skins,” explores the use of colors to adorn other kinds of skin, such as the pages of books or the surfaces of buildings. The chemical analyses of pigment discussed in Chapters 8–12 offer a view of the codices that too often remains on the periphery of discussions of this material, especially when iconography is the dominant approach. For this reason, I found these chapters to be especially appealing and have already worked them into my courses on Mesoamerican art to complement iconographic-centered readings on codices. Élodie Dupey García's chapter, “Making and Using Colors in the Manufacture of Nahua Codices,” is particularly important, because it unites multiple strains of discussion introduced throughout the book. I recommend it be read first, because it provides a way to draw a connecting thread through the book. Part II concludes with Franco D. Rossi's chapter on plaster as a kind of architectural skin in the Maya region. One could easily imagine a Part III built on the issues presented in this chapter and the one by Virginia E. Miller (Chapter 5) that would highlight more broadly the painted body in representation or color in noncodical material.

As with any volume as wide ranging as this one, there are several issues that should be mentioned. The introduction states that there is no such thing as a “universal symbolism of color, but rather that color, as a social object and event, only carries cultural meaning” (p. 5). That the significance of color is culturally constructed, as is nearly all meaning, seems true enough. However, Chapter 1 begins immediately with a discussion of the early (33,000 BC) use of red pigments and their universal appeal. To make a statement disavowing universal symbolism and then to follow it with an invocation of such symbolism appears contradictory. One might rather reconceive the introduction to state that, like all symbolic systems, the meaning of color is historically and cultural contingent, yet color's presence in the sensuous world of experience makes certain colors, such as red, particularly significant across cultures and through time because of shared experiences rather than intrinsic meanings. Furthermore, the organization of the volume is such that readers seem to be expected to develop a central thread that comes into greater focus as they go through it. To facilitate this, the discussion of how major issues connect could have been developed more fully in the introduction; for example, it would have been helpful to have had an expanded and more explicit statement on “native categories” that are mentioned in the introduction but are left largely to the reader to imagine.

That said, the book stands as a major addition to the scholarship not only on color but also on notions of the body, medicine, and visuality more broadly, covering an impressive scope of material not easily accessed through visual documentation alone. Most of the chapters deal with data derived from the scientific examination of physical objects. They provide a wealth of new material for consideration and reflection, compelling us to return to other instances and to assess how this new understanding of color challenges or augments our received interpretations.