The adventures that fill the strange and wonderful paintings by Remedios Varo (1908-1963) reflect the physical and psychological journeys of her own tumultuous life. Raised in a strict Spanish family and rigorously trained in academic art, Varo first found escape in Barcelona's bohemian avant-garde. After fleeing the Spanish Civil War with the poet Benjamin Peret, later her husband, she entered the inner circle of the Surrealists in Paris. Forced to flee again by the Nazis, she and Peret faced a year of mounting danger in Marseilles before securing passage to Mexico. Finding welcome refuge in Mexico City, where she remained until her death, Varo produced the extraordinary paintings for which she gained renown.

Painted with a jewel-like palette and old-master precision, Varo's intimate tableaux, rich with details of women's experience, tell fantasy tales of alchemy, science, mysticism, and magic. Fifty color reproductions capture the wit and beauty of her major paintings; numerous black-and-white illustrations document other works and portray the compelling artist with her circle of lifelong friends and admirers. The book is further enlivened by her own voice, conveyed in hilarious letters and surreal stories, published here for the first time.

An instant celebrity in Mexico -- where her retrospectives have drawn record crowds -- Varo has recently found enthusiastic audiences in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. A retrospective of her work opens at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., in February 2000.