Schoenherr may be known best as the original illustrator of the dust jacket art of "Dune", a 1965 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert that inaugurated a book series and media franchise. He had previously illustrated the serializations of the novel in "Analog", an endeavor which secured him a 1965 Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist. He later did the art for the "Analog" serialization of Herbert's "Children of Dune". In 1978 Berkley Books published "The Illustrated Dune", an edition of "Dune" with 33 black-and-white sketch drawings and 8 full color paintings by Schoenherr. Herbert wrote in 1980 that though he had not spoken to Schoenherr prior to the artist creating the paintings, the author was surprised to find that the artwork appeared exactly as he had imagined its fictional subjects, including sandworms, Baron Harkonnen and the Sardaukar.