American Gods by Suntup Editions

Since Suntup Editions first burst into the small/fine press world, Paul has brought us some of the most beautiful editions within the modern fine press movement. When he first announced the production of the landmark novel, American Gods, it was clear that this was going to be a special production. Years later, with most of the editions now in the hands of collectors, it is clear that this was worth the wait. While during this time there has been controversy surrounding the author, it does not take away from the energy, creativity and passion that was put into this project from some of the most talented artisans in the fine press world. From the choice of materials and typeface to the newly commissioned artwork, every detail has been crafted to create a whole even greater than its parts. In this conversation, we explore the journey of bringing American Gods to life in a form that is as much an object of art as it is a vessel for story.

Paul Suntup

Q: You first announced American Gods back in November of 2022, but we all know that you have been thinking about this publication for longer than that. Tell us about the inception and evolution of this project and why you think American Gods is a book that deserves the Suntup treatment?

Numbered Edition of American Gods

I had to look back on my emails to see when we first started working on this book. It was in September of 2020. It’s hard to believe. We can work on a book, and during the process, you have a sense of time passing, but not of exactly how much time because you get caught up in everything it takes to keep it moving forward. Then something prompts you to take a look, like this question, and I can’t believe that much time has passed.

As to the inception part of your question, we knew our customers wanted us to publish something by Gaiman, and when it came to identifying the book, I turned to American Gods. It is a fan favorite and an award-winning novel. So, with that baseline, it made a lot of sense. As with many books, this one took on a life of its own. When we started out with it, we had not realized it would evolve into as large of a production as it did.

Q: You brought on some truly incredible collaborators for this production, reaching across the pond for a usual suspect on the lettered binding, but also some new faces including the fine press mainstay Pat Randle for the printing, the endlessly creative Kate Holland to tackle the roman numeral binding, as well as Yoann Lossel and his wonderful artistic flair. How did you select the contributors to this project and what do you think each brings to this publication?

I will have to dust off the memory banks here! Let’s break it down though. Kate on the Roman state. I’ve wanted to work with her for some time but hadn’t found the right project until this came along. What she brings to the table is not only her exceptional bookbinding skills, but also her creativity and resourcefulness.

Jacek on the Lettered. Well, that was an obvious move for us since he’s done a good number of our previous titles which have always been well-received, and his bookmaking talents are impressive to say the least. He brings, like Kate, his creative flair to the binding materials and design, and his finishing is impeccable.

Classic Edition of American Gods

As for the printer, well I guess Pat was the only one crazy enough to take on a print job of this size! Over 840 pages printed letterpress across all four states. Pat and the team at Nomad Letterpress have a sterling reputation and very high standards when it comes to fine letterpress printing, so I could trust them completely with this. The paper handling alone was quite the undertaking. We’re talking over 100,000 sheets of paper. This required the assistance of Garry Phipps from Green Street Bindery in Oxford, who was a lifesaver with the paper logistics. He also bound the Classic edition.

Another collaborator not mentioned is Michael Russem, a highly skilled book designer who has designed several of our titles, and who created the interior typographic design. On the art front, we came up with a list of potential artists which we reviewed and then narrowed down, and then we sent our shortlist to Neil for review. He liked Yoann’s work and we reached out. Yoann was very excited to collaborate, and he worked on the art for at least a year, really immersing himself in the project to the extent that he made his own costume for one of the models and took extensive notes during the planning stages. We also did something different with this one. We had Yoann manage the printing of his artwork. Usually, we handle that ourselves, but the art has these gold foil accents and Yoann has a lot of experience with this so we handed the reigns over to him so that he could make sure it was produced to his satisfaction. He worked with his preferred printer and managed the printing process with our direction when needed.

Jacek Tylkowski – Lettered Edition Bookbinder

Q: You have been commissioned for more lettered editions than any other binder since the inception of Suntup Editions, so it is no surprise to me that you were selected to do such an important edition as American Gods. What does this partnership with Suntup mean to you and how did you try to start to wrap your head around this particular story when Paul first presented it to you?

My collaboration with Suntup Editions is very important to me. Now, from the perspective of working with Suntup Editions over the past few years, I have more experience and more thoughts. Of course, I was apprehensive at the beginning, but I guess that's normal when you start something new.

Lettered Edition of American Gods

Beginning a new relationship with a foreign publishing house was completely different than anything I had done before. Don’t get me wrong, I have been binding books for many, many years, but this work requires a different approach and preparation.

I am glad that my work has been so positively received by Paul Suntup and those who follow Suntup Editions, which, I think, influences the fact that I receive more and more new titles for binding. When I was asked to prepare a project for American Gods, I thought it was another big challenge, but as I mentioned, I now have much more experience on edition bindings, so I think it was easier for me to prepare. However, I keep my feet firmly on the ground and I know that nothing lasts forever and appreciate each new project.

Q: As usual, your design is wonderfully elegant and minimalist, executed with an obvious level of talent that speaks to how long you have been honing your craft. Tell us about where you drew your inspiration from with this particular design and how you achieved the beautiful gradient effect on the leather cover. Did having two volumes present any unique challenges?

I think it would be quite a challenge if I had to bind American Gods in one volume. Two volumes will naturally mean more work, but from a technical perspective it doesn't change much compared to what I was already binding, and I think it was necessary in this case.

I have my routine, especially when I don't know a given title, and that was the case here. I received standard information about the work, plus materials from Paul, which, as always, makes my work on the project easier.

The main inspiration on this binding was the color palette of the artworks, plus specific small elements from them, which I decided to include in the binding. I decided to dye it myself, so I used leather dedicated to this process. I achieved the gradient effect after performing several tests, finding what worked using trial and error. I like discoveries like this when I start something new and have no idea where it will lead me. This has already happened in the past and it is also true now.

Kate Holland – Roman Numeral Edition Bookbinder

Q: This is your first time working with Paul as a contributor to a Suntup Editions release. You are known for creating wonderfully inspired bindings that elevate the text and truly exemplify the idea of “book as art.” What did you find unique about this project that drew you to it since edition bindings are not your typical fare?

I am used to doing individual bindings one at a time but Paul approached me and I was keen to trial having a bit of a production line where there is an element of repetition. I did once do an edition of 100 books though and that nearly killed me so this much smaller run of 15 books, albeit in two volumes, so actually 30 books, was much more appealing.

Roman Numeral Edition of American Gods

Q: While most of your projects are singular bindings, commissioned for a specific client or a personal project, is there something particularly challenging or exciting about having to come together with other artists and collaborators to create a singular and coherent vision?

I'd known Pat's (Nomad Press) work, and his dad (Whittington Press) before him, as being exceptional so it was particularly exciting to be working with him and his team. The illustrations are very strong and vibrant so it was important that my binding design didn't detract from or clash with them. The handmade Losin paper is lovely and a joy to bind, though the weight of it and the number of pages the original single volume was incredibly thick, so I managed to persuade Paul to split it into two volumes, doubling my workload, but I hope making for a more enjoyable handling.

Pat Randle – Letterpress Printer

Q: While your work is well known throughout the fine press world from your numerous collaborations with other presses, I believe this is your first time collaborating with Paul. You are printing all four states of this edition, but they vary in some very important ways from one edition to the next. What are some of the unique challenges that you faced when having to print multiple editions of the same book on various papers, different numbers of volumes, and the other aspects of each particular state?

The American Gods project was technically relatively straightforward (all one colour, plate work, no wood engravings) project, but a huge print job in terms of its size, both page count and size of the edition. We ran 105,000 sheets through the machine, front and back, which presents obvious issues around storage and organisation.

The book had already been designed by Michael Russem over in America, with (I imagine) an American printer in mind. In the UK we exist in a halfway house between the inch and the centimetre. Our machinery is to the inch, but the paper (for this project) is supplied as B2 sized sheets, making a maximum book size of 170 x 245mm. So, the files needed to be resized before converting to plates. The original plan was to have all four editions printed as single volumes but it became apparent as we collated sets of sheets that the bindings on these huge spines would cause too many difficulties, so the conversion to two volumes on three of the editions was made as we went on with the printing.

Losin Paper and Watermark on Roman Numeral Edition

Regarding the papers - the “classic” edition needed to fit into one volume and at that size we needed a thin paper with minimal transparency, in the end opting for a lightweight Munken. This is perhaps the edition I am most looking forward to in book format - the Munken is surprisingly strong with a healthy rattle to it. There’s inevitably some transparency from page to page, but I don’t mind this. I like to think the book will have that Bible aura about it. Then the paper for the Roman Numeral edition, a handmade from the Czech Losin mill that we like, took weeks to prepare. They had to get the weight of the paper and one of the long edges consistent enough for us to be able to feed through the Heidelberg at the same time as the three other editions. The paper for the Lettered and Numbered editions, Mohawk and Somerset, were more predictable. 

Yoann Lossel - Illustrator

Q: American Gods has been a highly anticipated release for Suntup Editions, teased more than a year before announcing, and for such an important project, we know that Paul is very intentional with his choice of illustrators. Tell us about how you were first approached with this potential collaboration and what was your initial reaction to illustrating American Gods by Neil Gaiman?

I will always remember the first contact; it was the greatest dilemma of my career! Paul contacted me through Jason Sechrest while I was still engaged for months in the creation of my own art book—a highly demanding art book that I was developing as a concept book, in the logic of William Morris's Kelmscott Press—massively funded via crowdfunding. I had refused all collaborations that had been proposed to me to dedicate myself entirely to it, at least until the end of 2021.

In January 2021, I read: "We are currently publishing a signed limited edition of American Gods by Neil Gaiman. We would be delighted to commission you for this project, bringing you aboard as the illustrator for this edition." As I read the message, my eyes literally lit up; illustrating American Gods was one of my wildest dreams—my mind still buzzing with the thousands of images that reading the book, fifteen years earlier, had generated—but I needed much more time due to scheduling and personal artistic approach. We are talking about an extra year, which is colossal for a publishing project. I declined the invitation, explaining my dilemma, with a heavy heart; one should not commit without being able to give their best, especially with American Gods.

I did not expect the response that followed. I was offered not only all the necessary time but also artistic freedom. The ideal conditions, a dream within a dream. Immense joy overwhelmed me and at the same time, I immediately grasped the importance of the project and the responsibility it entailed. It's a blend of hyper-focus and excitement that has never left me.

At that same time, I had just finished developing a technique to reproduce the gilding of my originals on my art prints—I am a versatile artist, bibliophile, and lover of book crafts—Paul contacted me right from the start for this dual role of artist and craftsman, with my experience in the field of printing. This promised to be an absolutely fascinating project as I could put all my expertise to the service of the book as an art object. It was the ideal project, under ideal conditions, at the ideal time.

This is what I remember from Paul and his team's working method: they seek to create the best quality, and they are willing to give themselves the means and all the necessary time to achieve it. It is undoubtedly the best collaborative experience of my entire career.

Q: Tell us a little bit about your background and artistic influences. You are famous for your use of graphite and gold leaf combined, which has this wonderfully magical and ominous feel to it, but at other times, your art can be bursting with color and flamboyance, which is clearly on display from the preview art, depicting the chaotic carousel scene in American Gods. What did you draw from as inspiration and how did you decide on the tone for these illustrations?

I am a lover of art and craftsmanship, it is the common thread of my life. I grew up in a very creative environment that invited me to experiment with sewing, carpentry, theatre, drawing, collage, painting, mechanics... There was no distinction or hierarchy between mediums: each of them nourished my curiosity, quenched my thirst for understanding, and fed my simple pleasure of creating. As a child I was very sensitive, very contemplative, and not very concerned with the social categories in which we compartmentalise concepts. This later led me to read a lot of philosophy, poetry, politics, and social sciences. As a teenager, I embraced an underground culture with all the range of oddities it opened up for me, a mix of Punk, Post-Punk, Dark Folk, Industrial music, Metal, and Psychedelic Rock; while I became passionate about Dark Romanticism, Symbolism, medieval architecture up to Art Nouveau/Jugendstil, through the Italian Renaissance as well as Fantastic Art from Bosch to Beksiński. Gradually, I discovered the Golden Age of illustration, which I started collecting—the pinnacle for a lover of illustrated books—a perfect union of the art and craft trades.

Inevitably, when I discovered William Morris, it was love at first sight. Artistic love and human love. One can break free from categories and make art while making craftsmanship, anchor it in a political logic, and give it an intimately philosophical meaning. American Gods is the fruit of this journey; the illustrations were created with a pinch of all that.

To address my creative process more specifically: American Gods is as much a journey through contemporary America as it is a journey through the stories of all the nations that compose it. It's a journey through the history of the Fantastique and Fantasy that brings together folklore, myth, fairy tales, all the great and small stories.

It occurred to me to make this contemporary mythological story a visual journey through the history of fantastic art up to the works that have marked American culture more recently. This allowed me to borrow different styles, evoke different feelings with different techniques and achieve a very great diversity of representations. Thus, among the illustrations, there is a tribute or a nod to Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Arnold Böcklin, Edward Robert Hughes, Gustave Doré, Grant Wood, Edward Hopper, Zdzisław Beksiński, Alfons Mucha, Vincent Van Gogh, and Ferdinand Keller.

Along with this artistic research, and very early in the creation process, Paul Suntup entrusted me with choosing the printer and managing the prints for the illustrations, which allowed me to organise my entire creative process and in particular anticipate a subtlety: my work involved from the start the incorporation of gilding work reproducible in print through hot stamping. It is indeed one of the hallmarks of my work and part of my specificity. Alan Lee, the extraordinary English artist, wrote it beautifully in the preface to my book: "Adding decorative detail to the pages can simply provide a beautiful setting or framing to these vivid images, but it can do much more; adding cultural context, extra layers of storytelling and act as an intensifier. Yoann uses his sinuous and coiled linework to feed energy back into his densely shadowed and mysterious paintings."

Each image had to be designed to add this layer of symbolism, this divine dimension evoked by illumination, which suits a work about gods so well. An additional challenge, but also an additional dimension. These gildings allowed me to play with composition, highlight a detail, or add information. This is what allowed me to tell many things in very few images. This was my visual guiding thread.

Q: I know you have poured your heart and soul into each and every one of these illustrations, but is there one in particular that stands out to you as emblematic of the whole project? Do you have a piece that you know you will be looking proudly and fondly upon years from now?

Three illustrations seem emblematic to me, two are particularly interesting, and one has my special affection.

In January 2022, in the middle of the reflection phase, I was enchanted by a work that I had finally seen with my own eyes at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels: The Fall of the Rebel Angels. I had long contemplated it, American Gods already in mind. It is a fantastic, crazy, rich, and timeless work, like what I wanted for the book. But above all, in place of Bruegel's angels, I saw Wednesday, Shadow, Czernobog, and Mr. Nancy in the mad carousel race, surrounded by their multiple strange avatars. I had already thought of parodying Hopper, as an obvious choice, by seating Shadow and Wednesday in his famous diner while giving it all the strangeness of a place set in the otherworld, but this approach of anchoring American Gods in a classical work only concerned the frontispiece at that time. In a flash, it was possible for me to weave broader connections with fantastic art. The carousel, by invoking Bruegel, has the madness of Flemish works and invited me to extend my reflection to all the illustrations. Not to mention that I loved painting it.

The frontispiece, on the other hand, is a particularly telling witness to the additional layer of symbolism that gilding work can bring. The entire gilded frame surrounding this nod to Hopper is a narrative representation of the book (do not look at it in detail if you have never read American Gods!). There are three different gold leaf colours that compose it: a thread for Shadow's destiny, a thread for the old gods, a thread for the new gods. I have hidden all the important scenes and interactions in chronological order. It starts at the top left and reads counterclockwise to the end of the book. I like the idea that the reader can enjoy wandering through it if they wish. In the centre of the image, by invoking Nighthawks, I was already invoking an imaginary world.

By treating it in the manner of an old engraving, nourished by Gustave Doré's work, I gave it a timeless dimension. It only remained to hide a Chevrolet with headlights on, reflecting the Moon in its windshield, to evoke the setting of the final confrontation in the background, to stash posters of 69 Love Songs and Twin Peaks, to reserve a parking space for the buffalo-headed god and a second for Odin, to hide a mysterious man in the shadows and to slightly damage everything. I only had to sprinkle a few scattered bones and rubbish and then install two neon signs that indicate where we are and who is who...

The third illustration, the one that has my affection, is Zorya. Because I see my partner in this image, I particularly enjoyed painting it and it embodies my perfect vision of American Gods.

Paul Suntup

Q: As you directed this project from start to finish, what were some of the most difficult challenges of bringing this production to the finish line and what were the most rewarding aspects of it now that it has been released? What are you most excited for people to experience?

Pretty much every part of this production was a challenge. What comes to mind though is the page count. We did not start out with this being a two-volume edition. But after spending a great deal of time deciding on papers for each state, we made some sample books, and it was obvious that a single volume would not work for three of the four states. So, all but the Classic is being published as two volumes. You just have to be careful with this because it basically doubles the binding cost. But we had no choice. With the heavier-weight papers and the inclusion of the two sequel novellas, it bulked up fast. This is an inherent challenge for all high page count books. We have to balance the desire to create an enhanced reading experience by printing on mouldmade and handmade papers, with the need to keep costs down.

As to the rewarding aspects, I’d have to say the point at which things started to come together after several years of work. That is, when I saw the prototypes for the first time, and when I saw the printing for the first time. Everything up to that point is all “theory,” but when you see the fruits of your labor, there is satisfaction in that.

All Four States of American Gods

And lastly, what am I most excited for people to experience? I’d say it’s the production as a whole. It’s the beautiful type design, the papers, the quality of the letterpress printing. And then extending outward to the binding designs, and the materials used. The pleasure of seeing a favorite novel given special treatment, and ultimately, once the books are in people’s hands, the unique reading experience it can offer. We worked hard on this book and I hope our customers enjoy it and have a good experience with it.

---

This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth with all the contributors and we want to thank them all for their willingness to be a part of this series and their dedication to the process. If you want to stay up to date on what Paul is up to with Suntup Editions then you can follow them at https://suntup.press/ and sign up for their mailing list to get updates on production, future projects and information on artists and binders they work with. You can also follow them on Facebook to stay up with the monthly releases coming from this groundbreaking press.

You can follow the other contributors as well on their socials:

Kate Holland - Instagram

Jacek Tylkowski - Instagram

Yoann Lossel - Instagram

Interview by: Zach Harney co-founder of Collectible Book Vault