Rasanen, Marjo. (1997). Building Bridges, Experiential Art Understanding: A Work of Art as Means of Understanding and Constructing Self Helsinki: University of Art and Design Helsinki. 340 pages. ISBN 951-558-014-5. Reviewed by Mary Erickson Arizona State University In her new book, Marjo Rasanen undertakes to heal major rift in contemporary art education. In her own words she expresses her hope of building a 'postmodern' bridge between the cognitively emphasized discipline-based approaches and the student-centered aspects of art (p. 312). Building Bridges can be seen as two books in one. In the first half, Rasanen sets forth her model of experiential art understanding, model that integrates traditional artworld content with the personal lives of students. The second half of the book is detailed documentation of an action project, in which Rasanen implemented her model over 7-week period with high school students. In Rasanen's model of experiential art understanding, transfer occurs between art understanding and self-understanding while transformation occurs between based on experience and based on concepts. Some readers may question her characterization of art criticism, art history, and aesthetics as inquiry based on concepts and, not, therefore, inquiry based on experience, which Rasanen reserves for artmaking. Rasanen presents an extraordinarily extensive survey of literature as basis for building her model. After setting her model. After setting her model within the context of postmodern theory, she situates it more specifically within the context of learning theory. Her model draws substantially on David Kolb's (1984) experiential learning model and, in art education, on Judith Koroscik's (1996) cognitive model and Michael Parsons's (1987) theory of the development of aesthetic understanding. To accompany her comprehensive model of experiential art understanding, Rasanen has developed model for analyzing student learning. In that data analysis model she organizes levels of understanding in four general areas: a) self-understanding, b) art understanding, c) based on concepts, and d) based on experience. Within each of these general areas she identifies three sets of levels of sophistication. In all, her model includes total of 12 kinds of understanding, each having three levels of sophistication. The synthesis of theories which Rasanen presents in Building Bridges is thorough, comprehensive, and complex. This first half of her book can serve as source book of contemporary thinking in the field of art education. The literature of art education contains many models set forth as proposals to guide reform in the field. Rasanen has done much more than set forth complex model. She has put it into practice, documented the process, and assessed the effects of her instruction on individual students. In the second half of Building Bridges Rasanen documents series of ten integrated lessons which illustrate her model of experiential art understanding. Within the text and in detailed appendices, she outlines her lesson plans and describes her own and her students' experiences. Rasanen uses qualitative methods. In her field study she collected wide variety of evidence through multiple means, including interviews, videotapes, student writing, student artwork, diaries, and the observations of an art teacher who attended all sessions of the class. Rasanen's report is selfreflective and, when appropriate, self-critical. She characterizes her study as artistic research and goes so far as to propose that her planning and reporting be seen as work of art (p. 153). Here she seems to have set too high standard for her complex and scholarly book. In my view, the most important part of Rasanen's action report is her careful assessment of each individual student's art understanding and self-understanding. …