Visual Politics' By bell hooks The New Press, 1995 Those who are familiar with the writings of bell hooks will probably agree that almost anything she writes is a guaranteed success.

For those who don't know her, sister bell is a whole bunch of great things rolled into one: intellectual, cultural critic, feminist theorist, author, and more.

She's particularly well-known for her ability to combine academic discourses with straight-up reality, so she receives accolades and praise from both mainstream popular culture and ivory-tower intellects.

In Art On My Mind, bell hooks has written 13 essays on the politics of visual representation and specifically how these visual politics affect black people throughout the African diaspora.

Some of the essay titles include: "Talking Art as the Spirit Moves Us'', "Beauty Laid Bare: Aesthetics in the Ordinary'', "Representing the Black Male Body'' and "Black Vernacular: Architecture as Cultural Practice''.

The book includes conversations with artist Alison Saar, photographer Carrie Mae Weems, architect LaVerne Wells-Bowie and printmaker Margo Humphries.

Here's a little taste from the introduction: "One of the first paintings I ever made is hidden in my basement. It was not put there for safekeeping. Damp dank spaces are no place for art work one treasures... "Studying the history of painting by African-Americans, one sees that abstract expressionism influenced by the development of many artists precisely because it was a critical intervention, an expansion of closed turf. It was a site of possibility.'' Like all of bell hook's books, this is not exactly `light reading'; and this book is made harder if you don't have an extensive knowledge of art.

However, if you're someone who's comfortable with `not knowing' and you're able to walk into the book with an open mind and willingness to learn, it's an excellent read and provides a real opportunity to grow.

And if you already have a love for the beauty and expression that art represents, it certainly makes the journey smoother.

Kim Dismont Robinson REVIEW REV BOOK BKS