When Caren Holtzman and Lynn Susholtz look around a classroom, they see "a veritable goldmine of mathematical investigations" involving number, measurement, size, shape, symmetry, ratio, and proportion. They also think of the ways great artists have employed these concepts in their depictions of objects and space--for example, Picasso's use of geometric shapes in his Cubist still lifes or contemporary artist Tara Donovan's room-sized sculptures of everyday items.

In their new book Object Lessons, Caren (a math educator) and Lynn (an artist and art educator) use a highly visual...