She has written essays on numerous contemporary artists, such as Gabriel Orozco, Vija Celmins, Jean-Luc Moulène, Roni Horn, Ed Ruscha, and Rachel Whiteread.
She finished her PhD in 1988 with a dissertation on the Soviet and French avant-gardes, written at Essex University, where she worked with Professors Dawn Adès and Michael Podro.
In 1980 Fer joined the Art History Department at the Open University (OU), where she developed the essays published in the Modernity and Modernism textbooks, released in 1993 by the OU and Yale University Press.
Fer has also curated numerous exhibitions, such as the recent show of Gabriel Orozco at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh in 2013.
[2] Fer was a member of the juries that selected Isa Genzken (2019),[3] Michael Rakowitz (2020),[4] Senga Nengudi (2023)[5] and Otobong Nkanga (2024)[6] for the Nasher Prize.