L.H.O.O.Q. and wrote "Moustache par Picabia / barbiche par Marcel Duchamp / avril 1942". As was the case with a number of his readymades, Duchamp made multiple versions of "L.H.O.O.Q." of differing sizes and in different media throughout his career, one of which, an unmodified black and white reproduction of the "Mona Lisa" mounted on card, is called "L.H.O.O.Q. Shaved". The masculinized female introduces the theme of gender reversal, which was popular with Duchamp, who adopted his own female pseudonym, Rrose Sélavy, pronounced "Eros, c'est la vie" ("Eros, that's life"). Primary responses to "L.H.O.O.Q." interpreted its meaning as being an attack
Readymades of Marcel Duchamp distinguish them from handmade goods. He selected the pieces on the basis of "visual indifference," and the selections reflect his sense of irony, humor and ambiguity: "...it was always the idea that came first, not the visual example," he said; "...a form of denying the possibility of defining art." The first definition of "readymade" appeared in André Breton and Paul Éluard's "Dictionnaire abrégé du Surréalisme": "an ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist." While published under the name of Marcel Duchamp (or his initials, "MD," to be precise), André