For his first retrospective in Paris, Patrick van Caeckenbergh (born in Aalst, 1960 – lives and works in Sint-Kornelis-Horebeke, Belgium) invites us into his "garden." Having crossed the wrought-iron fence that delimits the "garden", visitors follow a trail of 23 object-sculptures, models and collages, all part of the unique oeuvre which Patrick van Caeckenbergh has developed over a period of more than twenty-five years. Fascinated by allegories, fables and stories, and by classification methods and the formation of natural systems, Patrick van Caeckenbergh’s work is centred around a "personal mythology" through which he compiles an original encyclopaedia of human nature. This encyclopaedia brings together the infinitely small and the infinitely large, microcosm and macrocosm, the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms. However, as his work le Puits Sceptique (the sceptical well) reminds us (from the French proverb la vérité est au fond du puits, truth is at the bottom of the well, meaning it is hard to find), Patrick van Caeckenbergh in no way seeks to establish a scientific truth. Scepticism and dreaming replace the quest for certainty.