AAHA! A very good explanation and well thought out!
Another way of looking at it is that a fuse is simply a wire, and there is no POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE between one end of the fuse and the other (with exception to the very slight resistance created by the length of the wire) However, when the fuse is open, it will have nearly INFINITE resistance to current flow, with only a very miniscule possibility that the air gap isn't acting as a sufficient INSULATOR) This means there is FULL POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE between the two terminals of the fuse, thus Full supply voltage (110 VAC) will drop across the fuse with zero current flow.
Did you understand all of this before I quized you or did you learn something new?