“We need a common enemy to unite us” is a quotation attributed to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Unwholely Alliances speaks code-like and in banner-like proclamation, to the substantively elusive yet assertive tone that inserts itself into political dialogue. The first twenty-five letterforms in the quotation have been cut symmetrically in half, spread horizontally or vertically apart, and attached to one of the fifty states from a dissected map of the United States. Each half letter-form/state combination was attributed either the color red or blue representing the divisive shorthand of political convenience used by politicians and pundits. With puzzling perplexity and riddle-like complication, the quote, originally meant as a call-to-action to bolster the “coalition of the willing,” might as well ask “What will bind us together... as a country, as a people, as a world?”... and “just exactly who is that enemy?”