In many of his posters promoting his lectures to various professional or public organizations, Chwast depicts himself in a comic or mysterious guise and is often accompanied by a slightly suggestive pun, signaling both his naturally subversive nature and the fact that his lecture is likely to be anything but stuffy and predictable. Here, as so often, he identifies himself mainly by his signature pipe, seen emerging from the cloth beneath which he and his professional secrets will ultimately be revealed, as he holds a slide.