09/01/2026
Card games play an important role in Emily Joyce’s most recent body of work at the gallery. The way a deck is shuffled is central to the way it is used. Riffle shuffles (interleaving halves) are highly efficient at randomizing cards. Conversely, cutting (swapping halves) does not randomize cards but only changes their position.
A perfect shuffle is a riffle in which the deck is split into two equal-sized packets and the interleaving between these two packets strictly alternates between the two. There are two types of perfect shuffle: an in shuffle and an out shuffle, both of which can be performed consistently by well-trained dealers and magicians. When a deck is repeatedly shuffled using these permutations, it remains much less random than with typical riffle shuffles, and it will return to its initial state after only a small number of perfect shuffles. In particular, a deck of 52 playing cards will be returned to its original ordering after 52 in-shuffles or 8 out-shuffles. This fact forms the basis of several magic tricks.
Pick your favorite card! 🃏✨
Images: Emily Joyce, Riffle Shuffle and Cutting groupings, 2025, acrylic paint on canvas, 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm) each
