mysql - cross ref table1 (all rows) with table2 and update table3

[j milo taylor]

a database of artists. three tables are relevant for this posting:

works (name, type, notes, year, location etc)
work_nodes (workid_worknodes, nodeid_worknodes, id_worknodes) - (integer values)
nodes (nodeid_nodes, node_nodes (e.g. installation, trains, steel)

is there a procedure where i can:

1) search the works table cols (e.g. name, type, notes, location)
for each of the nodes (nodes_node) (there are about 130)

and

2) update the worknodes table (workid_worknodes and nodeid_worknodes)
wherever a match is found

resulting in e.g.

worknodes
id_worknode-----workid_worknodes-----nodeid_worknodes
1 1 6
2 1 36
3 1 101
etc

7 2 56
8 2 47
9 2 67

etc