At the outset of the First World War, she made the decisive choice to enlist as a nurse. By late 1914, her brother Marcel, who had relocated to the United States, instructed her to clear out his Paris studio. It was there that she uncovered two groundbreaking “ready-made” pieces: the « Bicycle Wheel » and the « Bottle Rack ».

Following Marcel’s directive, she assertively added “after Marcel Duchamp” to the « Bottle Rack ». During this period, Suzanne confidently produced her first works in a dynamic “mechanomorphic” style. In the autumn of 1916, she met Jean Crotti, a painter and a close friend of Marcel’s, who had recently returned from the United States. They married in Paris in April 1919. While Marcel Duchamp traveled in Buenos Aires, he sent them explicit instructions for a “ready-made gift,” asking Suzanne to attach a geometry book to his apartment balcony. The wind was meant to flip through the pages and select the problems. Suzanne boldly transformed this idea into a painting, aptly named “Marcel Duchamp’s Unhappy Ready-Made.”