Shut Eye Press
Books
artists' books & zines
Prints
postcards, prints, & broadsides
Art
literary objects & ephemera
The Press
Founded in 2013, Shut Eye Press is a print and bookmaking studio that specializes in storytelling, letterpress design, playful forms, and creative collaboration. The press supports an array of community collaborations, spanning from handmade book covers, to custom-designed artists’ books and journals, to keepsake broadsides and ephemera, and beyond. While I use many print techniques, I have a special love for letterpress—caring for the historic presses, printing books for fellow creatives, and making the tools as accessible as possible for others to play and create with.
I deeply love creative collaboration. If you have something unusual you want to do with your next book or zine, or you would like to check out the print shop’s possibilities, let’s talk!
Shut Eye was born and still operates out of Phoenix, AZ, on occupied Akimel O’odham and Pee Posh land, though some projects and pieces have been formed, printed, or assembled elsewhere.
The studio is equipped to support every step of bookmaking, with:
a 1911 Chandler & Price New Style platen press (8”x12” chase)
a Sigwalt Ideal 3 platen press (4”x6” chase)
an Ettan MS-3 etching press
a galley proof press
a RISO EZ390 stencil printer
a Glowforge laser cutter
a Challenge guillotine paper cutter
and other useful printing and binding tools
We also have big windows; lots of paper, bookcloth, and binding thread; and a huge library of resources on printmaking, bookmaking, artists’ books, and related skills.
Our ethos
Queer and trans led, Shut Eye Press lives beyond the binaries in who we are, what we make, and how we serve the community. We honor the history of the printing press while also diving into contemporary processes and techniques to explore what it can do.
Our print shop prioritizes vegan, eco-friendly processes by avoiding animal products; reducing solvents, chemicals, and waste; and incorporating excess and misprints into new art. We embrace the analog, and we have never, and will never, use generative AI in our design, crafting, or administrative processes.
Paper Jam + Print
In 2022, Shut Eye Press joined up with SaturnHex and Wasted Ink Publishing to establish Paper Jam + Print collaborative print studio in downtown Phoenix. We’re located in the historic building at 335 W. McDowell Street, right next door to another incredible resource: Wasted Ink Zine Distro!
Fostering this print space inspires me to work more closely and in conversation with other artists, against previous tendencies to tunnel deeper into myself and be overprotective and over-analytical of my creative ideas. And I love getting to hold space and share my resources with other mixed-media creatives as they bring their visions to the surface!
