Since gaining independence in 1960, Nigeria has suffered a brutal civil war, an oil boom, and economic breakdown. In response to their country's political and social decline, contemporary artists associated with the University of Nigeria at Nsukka have turned to the traditions of the southeastern Igbo culture, especially to the lyrical, curvilinear design system called uli that women have used to decorate their bodies, the walls of homes, and shrines.

Employing media such as drawing, painting, and printmaking, Nsukka artists - most of whom are men - have dynamically combined uli motifs, colors, and use of space to reinterpret the past and comment on the present.

In this detailed study of seven selected artists of the Nsukka group, Simon Ottenberg explores the ways in which their diverse uses of uli have been informed by their relationships to Igbo culture, their experiences in the 1967-70 war, their literary interests, and their influences on one another.