WWW HR GIGER COM
(1997 - Taschen)

Not appropriate for children or adolescents. This 240-page book is something of an overview of Giger's career at the time he was capitalizing on his earlier art-design success in conjunction with the film ALIEN and proving that his talent was not a fluke by garnering accolades for his similar work on a new movie, SPECIES. Only half of the book's pages can really be said to be presenting his paintings and drawings because so much is devoted to other interesting projects he was involved in, such as the bar he designed, his backyard railroad and his sculpted furniture & jewelry. Many of the paintings are from his New York City series portfolios that display his abstract hyper-realism. Some of them are included in the ten double-page spreads found here, of which, admirably, nine make satisfactory use of the book's central gutter and avoid significant distortion. All the pieces are captioned with title or original use, along with creation year and size. I think someone looking for a collection of his art may be bit disappointed by this hodge-podge compendium, where so much of its contents are sketchy concept design work and ideas in their early stages. What other people find objectionable about Giger's work is fully embraced here and it certainly does not shy from its adult themes whatsoever. Some of the art here is actually other artists' works from Giger's own collection of the time. With one 'well-presented' piece each are: Ralf Abati, Joe Coleman, Marlyse Huber, Jean-Marie Poumeyrol and S. Clay Wilson.