Dueling Dictionary is structured to represent the competition that existed between two dictionary companies during the American Civil War. A single craftsman named John Andrew was hired by both companies to create the accompanying engravings seen in dictionaries of that era; John Carrera recycles a large amount of that imagery in his celebration of the competitive industry.
Using some old and newly created relational illustrations, Dueling Dictionary catalogs several antonymic terms within two separate spiral bindings, collecting the individually printed images into small stacks that can be turned to different pages independently. The effect is a formal nod towards a saloon-door-esque feud and consequent ‘dueling’ of two sides. Produced through Carrera’s own Quercus Press, Dueling Dictionary features set type and engravings, each hand printed on a letterpress in 2015.