The Large Glass took up a large chunk of Duchamp's career, from 1915 to 1923. In 1934, he published the Green Box, a collection of cryptic notes and sketches pertaining to the Large Glass. But he is most famous for what he called ready-mades: ordinary, commercial objects such as a coat rack, snow shovel, bicycle wheel, and, most notoriously, a porcelain urinal, which Duchamp claimed became art when he selected them.

Shearer thinks Duchamp may have gotten the idea for his ready-mades from a surprising source: Poincaré (1854-1912). Poincaré is best known today for laying the mathematical foundations of chaos theory (more technically called nonlinear dynamics), in a prizewinning paper on celestial mechanics. But he was also widely known for popular essays on mathematics, science, and the mind. And, like many artists and writers in the early 20th century, Duchamp took a keen interest in such scientific ideas. References to Poincaré in the Green Box and elsewhere indicate that Duchamp was familiar with the mathematician's writings.