Abstract: This article turns for the first time to the personal library of H. R. Giger and reveals his deep and enduring passion for Surrealism. One quickly discovers to what extent his visual universe draws upon the imagery of surrealist artists. In this study of Giger's library, he emerges as an avid reader, both of the nineteenth-century works that inspired the surrealists and of the visual productions that led them toward the strange, the uncanny, the incongruous, and the absurd. It reflects his opportunity to meet Salvador Dalí—a brief encounter that, while frequently discussed, has been subject to much mythologizing in subsequent historiography. This study thus offers valuable insights into the mechanisms of contemporary popular culture, of which Giger was both an heir and a visionary contributor. In this sense, the library stands as a material tool of real consequence in rethinking what we know about knowledge and history.
Fabrice Flahutez (Sun,) studied this question.