Wrestlemania

Felino, El Gangster, Guerrero Azteca, Histeria. As noms de guerre, the signatures of Mexican wrestlers are almost as colorful as their outfits, and photographer Malcolm Venville has assembled more than 120 color portraits of masked marvels, dressed to kill, or at least maim in "Lucha Loco" (Therapy, $80). His portraits are funny, scary, artistic or bizarre. It's all in the eye of the beholder.

The book includes an introduction by Sandro Cohen, the Mexican poet, novelist and literary critic, that wrings all the cultural, historical and socioeconomic meaning out of the sport of lucha libre, which became popular in the 1950s and '60s and survives, he writes, as "a circus for the poor."

The colorful, cartoonish get-ups of "Lucha Loco" deserve a place in any encyclopedic review of native costumes. One wonders what many people would choose to wear if they could hide their identities behind masks.