These days, books, like CDs and adopted children from war-torn nations, are collector's items for those who can afford them. Well, the current exhibit at New York's Center for Book Arts supports that idea anyway. "Artist as Publisher" isn't a gallery of art so much as a gallery of art publications. Skewing towards experimental work, the show examines the role of publications in the lives and careers of artists who have made a name for themselves, initially not through high-profile exhibitions but through independent publication -- an easier and more effective method of disseminating artwork.

Some shit has fallen on a children's home in Bern, Switzerland. No, not a torrential downpour of Hannah Montana DVDs, but rather "Complex Shit" -- a large inflatable piece of dog poop fashioned by American artist Paul McCarthy. The work was on display as part of the Paul Klee Centre's outdoor exhibition "East of Eden: A Garden Show," and was designed to deflate in case of adverse weather. However, it failed to do so. Instead, "Complex Shit" was carried by a gust of wind until it hit power lines and descended, breaking the window of a nearby children's home. Although the fate of this synthetic animal waste as a continued part of "Eden" looks tenuous at best, its flight remains upstaged by the flying penis that nearly grazed Russian politician Gerry Kasparov.