Okay, so I admit that posting the cover of a 1,200-page law book might not seem an obvious fit for a…

Okay, so I admit that posting the cover of a 1,200-page law book might not seem an obvious fit for a page about art. But as a critic, I’ve gotten a kick dipping into sections like “What Is Art” and “Who Is an Artist,” let alone into copyright cases involving Andy Warhol and Richard Prince that I’ve written about. (I was sad not to see mention of the Metabirkins trademark case, since I was deeply involved in that. Maybe it will get into the next edition, given that the appeals court looks set to take another decade or two to reach a decision in it…)I’m especially interested in all the light this book sheds (by accident, according to co-author Simon Frankel) on how our society thinks about art. Every time we pass a law about art that is different from laws we pass about, say, potatoes or toaster manuals, we’re revealing the weirdly special status we grant it