In A Short Book about Art Dana Arnold moves through time, place, and medium in an effort to offer a wholistic, non-traditional introduction to looking at and studying art, weaving in the texts of art historians as well as the philosophies of Kant, the psychoanalysis of Freud, and so on. The book is split into six thematic sections—looking, materials, mind, devotion, power, and sex—but Arnold is most successful in educating the reader when she brings us back to previous chapters, making connections between themes. She uses important artworks as examples of the ways art can be discussed, criticized, and studied and offers interesting anecdotes about and quotes from major artists throughout; the commentary on them feels somewhat banal. Moments of connecting works of unlike artists (Cornelia Parker, b. 1956, to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1598–1680) are intriguing—and, importantly, showcase the ways in which the art historical canon need not be a chronological one. A mostly jargon-free vocabulary and a conversational tone make this book accessible to anyone, regardless of their existing knowledge of historical or contemporary art, but the book is best suited for those with a beginning interest in looking at, understanding, and discussing art in an intelligent way (without reading a dull textbook, which A Short Book is most certainly not).