Although the art and films of Jan Švankmajer enjoy wide international recognition today, ranking him among the most original artists of the last decades, many aspects of his life and work have remained unexplored. Nor has any book yet tried to systematically and comprehensively mark out the path of the formation and development in the work of this film-maker, artist, experimenter, poet and 'militant Surrealist' and thus show how the different sides converse with each other. The present book is the most comprehensive monograph on Jan Švankmajer so far, it describes with greater depth and precision aspects of his life and work and it invites the reader to dive into a wonderfully rich and coherent, distinctive and unique universe. The essays emphasise and illuminate characteristic attributes of Švankmajer's work - puppet theatre, Mannerism, Surrealism, collaboration with Eva Švankmajerová, his own film idiom, and also comparatively little known elements such as obsessional passion for collecting, first formative years and experiences.