2006-12-25 and 2007-01-01 Posted 2006-2-18 ALLAN McCOLLUM "Unique," it will be remembered, does not mean "unusual." It means nonpareil, one of a kind. This much abused buzzword is freshly sharpened in McCollum's "Shapes Project," which presents, in a comic nightmare of regimented specialness, a portfolio of two hundred and fourteen million unique shapes that "have been set aside for creative experimentation." (The plan is to eventually have one shape for every human being on the planet.) What this means in practice is a sloping floor on which more than seven thousand small, bloblike, black-framed prints are arrayed; the specs for the rest are available in a long shelf of binders. In the back room, an even more select group of shapes are realized in polished wood, like absurd children's toys. Through Dec. 23. (Petzel, 537 W. 22nd St. 212-680-9467.)