L.H.O.O.Q, Marcel Duchamp
The name of the piece, L.H.O.O.Q. (in French èl ache o o qu), is a pun, since the letters when pronounced in French form the sentence “Elle a chaud au cul”, which can be translated as “She has a hot ass,” or alternatively “there is fire down below.” In a late interview (Schwarz 203), Duchamp gave a loose translation of “L.H.O.O.Q.” as the latter; in fact the term avoir chaud au cul is slang used in the sense of “to be horny”.
