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ii This dissertation explores the exile period work (1979-1999) of the Czech-born writer and artist Jiří Kolář, with particular focus on his two series Kafkova Praha (Kafkas Prague) and Hakova Praha (Haeks Prague). These two series are examined in the context of Kolářs role in the development of Czech modernism in the twentieth century, his dual status as a poet and visual artist, the series connections to the writers for which they are named (Franz Kafka and Jaroslav Haek), and the artists complex relationship with his homeland during his absence from it. Both series illustrate aspects of Kolářs struggle with his cultural and national identity, as well as his pursuit of a means of expression that could combine characteristics of poetry and visual art. The motifs of concealment, revelation, displacement, ubiety, language, and identity emerge with powerful clarity in Kolářs work during the two decades around which this dissertation revolves. Although Kolář created Kafkas Prague just after his forced separation from Czechoslovakia and Haeks Prague just after his return home twenty years later, I argue that these two sets of manipulated photographs are not clear brackets around the artists exile period. When studied together and with the historical circumstances and events that surround them in mind, they provide important insight into the experience of the displaced east European during and after the Communist period