The subject of the book of the famous art critic and art critic, curator of a number of the most important international exhibitions of the 1990-2000s Thierry de Duva (born 1944) is one of the key events in the history of contemporary art - the transition of Marcel Duchamp from painting to redi-meid, demonstrations as works of art selected by the artist ready-made things. Tracing and interpreting the reasons that led Duchamp to this decision, de Duve offers the reader at the same time a psychoanalytic version of the artist's evolution, an introduction to the system of his views, an insightful characterization of the European art scene at the turn of the 1900-1910s and, finally, elements of an innovative one. theory of art based on naming procedure.