PhxArt Book Club Special Author/Illustrator Talk

Abecedario de Juárez: An Illustrated Lexicon Join 2025 Arizona Artist Award winner Alice Lenora Briggs, co-author and illustrator of Abecedario de Juárez: An Illustrated Lexicon, for an insightful look into the book and her artistic practice. Abecedario is a dictionary centered on the language of Juárez, a Mexican border city with a long history of violence. From personal interviews, media accounts, and conversations on the street, [the authors] 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. Organized alphabetically, the entries consist of Spanish and Spanglish, accompanied by short English definitions. Some also feature a longer narrative drawn from interviews, stories that put the terms in context and provide a personal counterpoint to media reports of the same events. Letters, and many of the entries, are supplemented with Briggs’s evocative illustrations, which are reminiscent of Hans Holbein’s famous Alphabet of Death. Together, the words, drawings, and descriptions in Abecedario de Juárez both document and interpret the everyday violence of this vital border city. This program is intended for audiences 18 years and older.