I own several hefty vintage dictionaries that I bought specifically for use in collage. I usually intend to use the pages as backgrounds, but at some point found myself clipping the images. I love dictionary illustrations for their simplicity and utility. I also wonder about how words get chosen for illustration. Why a Luna Moth? A halter top? (Remember those?) Classic deities! I don’t know what illustration and printing techniques they used, or whether they were able to create large illustrations and reduce their size, but with the tiny anatomical illustrations….I imagine an artist bending over their work table with a magnifying glass.
