Abecedario de Juárez
Like Hans Holbein's 1538 alphabet, death is at the core of Abecedario de Juárez, a book collaboration with Juárez journalist, Julián Cardona.
A compilation of the 100+ drawings, paired with a new vocabulary rising out of Juárez, fix aspects of an ever evolving language that is secretive by nature. It is inevitably a history book. Many words and meanings have fallen out of use before the pages were bound.
Juárez, Mexico, is known for violence. The femicides of the 1990s, and the cartel mayhem that followed, made it one of the world's most dangerous cities. Along with the violence came a new lexicon that traveled from person to person, across rivers and borders—wherever it was needed to explain the horrors taking place. From personal interviews, media accounts, and conversations on the street, Julián Cardona and Alice Leora Briggs have collected the words and slang that make up the brutal language of Juárez, creating a glossary that serves as a linguistic portrait of the city and its violence.
Email: aliceleorabriggs.art@gmail.com