Tennille Shuster
Davie, Florida

Tennille Davis Shuster, Associate Professor of Art at Nova Southeastern University, received her BFA from James Madison University and MFA from Florida Atlantic University. An interest in letterpress printing, non-traditional binding methods, and paper marbling fuel her desire to elevate graphic design - a field often characterized by transience and confined by commerce - to a more organic, precious, and self-expressive format. She has received several awards including the Florida Artists' Book Prize. Her work is internationally exhibited and resides in public and private collections including Iraq National Library, Duke University, the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book, and many others.

Website: tennilleshuster.com

Bound Together

Created in an edition of 10 and housed in a custom-designed enclosure, Bound Together is printed on heavyweight Rives BFK paper using handset Caslon metal type on a Vandercook 4 proof press. The marbled paper pages were created with ink and the artist's breath, and feature text excerpted from The Log From the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck, reading: each in his own tempo/ and with his own voice/ discovered and reaffirmed/ with astonishment/ the knowledge that/ all things are one thing and/ one thing is all things/ all bound together. The custom designed box enclosure houses the circular pages, which assemble to form a tetrahedron. The box enclosure then unfolds to accommodate the assembled structure.
Rives BFK heavyweight paper, linen, marbled paper.
Boxed: 5.25 x 5.25 x .75 inches; 13 x 13 x 2 centimeters. Created 2014.

Behind Closed Doors

Created in an edition of twelve and housed in a custom designed case featuring a satin nickel wide-angle door viewer (peephole), Behind Closed Doors is printed on Arches heavyweight paper using handset Caslon metal type on a Vandercook 4 proof press. The edition features four cover options, each printed with four unique keys on four different types of wood veneer, signifying the four sisters in my family. Blind, hand-embossed illustrations from original papercuts create subtle architectural details on the map-fold book that unfolds to reveal four homes, each featuring a line from a poem written by the artist specifically for this project. The poem reads: Inhaling through the halls of our homes/ We sister, mother, daughter, wife/ Exhaling in harmony, a symphony of breath/ Across miles, we let go this life. Each "house" features a different digitally-designed pamphlet stitched booklet with images of the women and their lives set in each of the four sisters' homes.
Book: Pressure printed birds eye maple veneer, book cloth, binders board, marbled paper, letterpress printed, hand-embossed Arches heavyweight paper; linen thread pamphlet stitched booklets digitally designed and printed on Rives BFK; Clamshell box: Binders board, book cloth, marbled paper, functioning peephole.
7 x 10 x 2.25 inches; 18 x 25.5 x 5.5 centimeters. Created 2014.