U.S. SHORTS.

WHAT'S MORE POWERFUL, the word or the image? In the millennial spirit, a number of shows seem ready to grapple with the centuries-old question. The Drawing Center will host the work of James Castle from March 4 to May 4. The Idahoan's achingly homespun drawings constitute one portion of his idiosyncratic set of symbols, which functions for the deaf artist as a substitute for spoken and signed language. At the Yale University Art Gallery, Joanne Weber invokes the curatorial imperative to textualize a collection of fifteen-plus visual works in "Philip Guston: A New Alphabet" (Apr. 25--July 30), which examines the painter's use of smaller-scale images ("pictograms," as Weber describes them) to reconstitute the figural from within his midcareer practice of abstraction. Joseph Grigely draws from the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum, making manifest, as he is wont, the intangibles of conversation from material elements (here, combining his signature sentence-fragment paper notes with works depicting dialogue) in a just-opened show (through Apr. 9). And Vernon Fisher's visual narration goes up at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on January 13 (through Mar. 5).

In Cambridge, MA, the work of Ed Ruscha, certainly implicated in the updated ut-pictura-poesis debate, will be juxtaposed with the photographs of Andreas Gursky, offering a cross-examination of the artists' landscapes in "Landmark Pictures," Linda Norden's inaugural exhibition at the Harvard University Art Museums (Jan. 8-Mar. 19). The ICA Philadelphia has also organized an ambitiously thematic exhibition, "Against Design," including Andrea Zittel, Angela Bulloch, Jim Isermann, Joe Scanlan, and Jorge Pardo. Steven Beyer (of Philly's Fabric Workshop and Museum) curates the show, which should provide an informed take on the unvalorized/feminine side of the creative principle--to wit, "craft" (Feb. 5-Apr. 16). Also in the City of Brotherly Love, Thomas Hirschhorn, as part of a Moore College public art installation opening in March, is constructing a sidewalk predella and altar to Raymond Carver--a fitting candidate for an American hagiography (new work by the Swiss-born artist now residing in France will also b e on view at the Art Institute of Chicago from Jan. 23 to Apr. 19). Recent work by another Paris-based artist, Pierre Huyghe, goes up at Chicago's Renaissance Society on March 12; expanding on his interrogation of the media's consistent failure to adequately represent lived experience, he tackles Dog Day Afternoon (Attica, anyone?). Huyghe can be seen as well in a solo exhibition (opening Mar. 18) across town at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Two artists who also draw on contentious historical narrative, Leonardo Drew and Willie Cole, will be featured respectively at the Hirsh-horn (Feb. 6-June 3) and the Miami Art Museum (Jan. 28-Apr. 9). In a show moved up from the January opening originally planned, Frank "what-you-see-is-what-you-see" Stella's latest eyepopper--a wildly spiraling outdoor amphitheater--is on view at the Miami MOCA, where the work of Matthew Ritchie can also be seen beginning in late March. Brazilian Ernesto Neto has two installations, one at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, in January, the other (with Andy Goldsworthy) in April at SITE Santa Fe. Peter Doig's recent paintings, haunted by teen angst, will be up at the Berkeley Art Museum beginning in February, and Richard Prince, primogenitor of said artistic quality, has work on view at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles in late February. Additional shows of note include Dutch installation artist Marijke van Warmerdam at the Boston ICA (Apr. 26-July 2), as well as Luca Buvoli (Apr. 27-July 2) and Turner Prize finalists Jane and Louise Wilson (Jan. 28--Apr. 9) at the MIT List Center.