Book Review

When Walls Become Doorways: Creativity and the Transforming Illness. Tobi Zausner. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2006. 374 pages, hardcover, $ 23.95 Making art has powerful meaning for an artist. As an essential expression that links the artist’s inner life with external reality, creating art gives unique form to life’s most incomprehensible experiences. For some, making art is driven by a sense of purpose that can overcome devastating life circumstances presented by illness and disability. Tobi Zausner’s book examines how facing life challenges by creating art can lead to transformation in the lives of artists. Carolyn Lyons Horan, an artist/ teacher with multiple sclerosis and arthritis, put it simply: ‘‘Transformation...... is taking something from the experiences of life and growing from it’’ (p. 34). Zausner, a working artist, tells her own story of being diagnosed with a virulent ovarian cancer in 1989. Despite a poor prognosis, she withstood intensive invasive surgery, chemotherapy, and alternative treatments in her determination to survive and inspire others. She completed a doctorate in psychology and art, studying visual artists whose struggle with illness or disability shaped their creative process and enriched their purpose in life. She highlights their significant achievements in relation to their overwhelming life challenges. The artist’s profiles are organized by illness, such as childhood diseases or accidents, loss or disabilities of the senses, and cancer, paralysis or traumatic injuries. Some are very famous, such as Leonardo da Vinci (dyslexia and attention deficit disorder) and Chuck Close (learning disabilities and quadriplegia), and others lesser known, such as Nell Blaine (scarlet fever, poor eyesight and polio) and Ann Silver (deafness). While revealing tragic or painful aspects of the artists’ life stories in relation to illness, Zausner’s hopeful perspective asserts the human capacity to deal American Journal of Dance Therapy Vol. 29, No. 2, December 2007 DOI: 10.1007/s10465-007-9034-7

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Book Review

with such things. She suggests that a dynamic creative relationship with art itself is emblematic of transformational illness. Zausner’s writing blends scholarly art history research with communications of contemporary artists. She looks at how the creative act transforms the artist, so that adaptations, such as not using color (with colorblindness) or using the non-dominant hand or mouth (in paralysis) become part of the creative process. While briefly mentioning therapeutic aspects of creating art, such as its compensatory, coping, and identity supporting functions, Zausner doesn’t deal with art as therapy or look at the deeper and more complex aspects of how this transformational process actually works. Evidence that art as pure creative expression, distinct from art therapy, can be transformative in life changing ways is instructive for dance therapists. Using art to articulate and reconstruct a vital aspect of life, reconnection with spirit, may be basic to the function of art in healing. Dancers and dance therapists are familiar with using creative spirit and imagination to activate purpose and meaning in life, and may be aware of the power of expression and its effect on health. A distinction of dance is its unique psychophysical process, where the direct immediate link between expression of ideas, feelings and emotional life occurs through the body in motion. Dance is created in the present body, so that adaptations to changing realities, including physical limits, loss, and illness are intrinsic to sustaining one’s dance life. Zausner’s emphasis on particularities of the visual arts reminds us to recognize the aspects of dance that are life change affirming. Zausner’s writing style is engaging and straightforward, yet repetitive and predictable conclusions lessen its impact. Lacking visual reproductions of each artist’s transformational work, Zausner’s descriptive analyses and historical citations of specific art works suffice. (A website listed in the appendix provides links to some of the images described). This book has value for anyone working with the interface of creativity with illness, loss and meaning in life, illuminating a basic function of art, to create a sense of meaning for what is beyond our comprehension. Anne Krantz 2845 California Street, San Francisco, CA, 94115, USA. e-mail: [email protected]