Joinery, Joists & Gender

In 2022 Routledge released my first book, Joinery, Joists and Gender: A History of Woodworking for the 21st Century, the first ever history of women and gender non-conforming folks who work in wood. Accessible and engaging—with 200 full-color images, both historical and contemporary—the book dives deeply into the histories, practices, and lived experiences of women and nonbinary makers in woodworking, from the middle ages to the present.

"I love this book (Joinery, Joists & Gender)...My favorite aspect of the book is the intellectual perspective that Visser brings to the subject, which she treats with welcome nuance. I greatly appreciate that Visser and her colleague in the project early on, Laura Mays, saw fit to include not just art- and studio-furniture makers, but builders of custom work who happily refer to their workspaces as shops, and builders of buildings (to a lesser extent)…The diversity of featured makers is great. This is by no means a review, but it’s certainly an appreciation and a strong recommendation."

Nancy Hiller, woodworker and author, USA,
the full Book Report