ORLAN's performance artwork uses famous depictions of women by male artists, for example, Mona Lisa and Jean-Léon Gérôme's artwork depicting a woman with horns, to inform her surgery choices and performance art. By doing so, ORLAN is replicating ideal features of women depicted in famous artwork throughout time, on her own body and face. ORLAN says that she has been troubled by the nude depictions of women in artwork throughout history, who were there only to satisfy the male gaze, which is why she is attempting to change this in a powerful and revelatory way, by challenging the conventions women are forced to conform to.