Her style, which developed in the early 1970s as a reaction to the work of minimal artists, has been characterized as post-minimal, anti-form, and process art.
[1][2] Informed by her own personal history, Winsor's sculptures from this period sit at the intersection of minimalism and feminism, maintaining an attention to elementary geometry and symmetrical form while eschewing minimalism's reliance on industrial materials and methods through the incorporation of hand-crafted, organic materials such as wood and hemp.
[9] Winsor's family moved frequently during the 1940s due to her father's job, between Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.
degree from Rutgers University in 1967; where she met classmates and artists Keith Sonnier (whom she married in 1966),[11] and Joan Snyder.
[12] During the late 1960s, Winsor and her contemporaries, which included artists such as Lynda Benglis, Eva Hesse, Barry Le Va, Bruce Nauman, Joel Shapiro, and Richard Tuttle, collectively pushed modern sculpture into a new "Postminimalist" direction.
Winsor believed that an artist's work is a reflection of their inner selves[14] and she demonstrated this in her rope pieces, as they relate back to her heritage of sea captains.
Rainer's work was experimental and its intention was to put the body back into abstraction and use it along with motion to create shape.
[16] Winsor used very involved, hands-on processes to create her sculptures, including nailing, wrapping, joining, and measuring.
I spend an enormous amount of time just trying to imagine if an eighth of an inch at some point is going to make a major difference in the completed construction of the piece.
[20] Winsor was included in the exhibition More than Minimal: Feminism and Abstraction in the '70s (1996) at Rose Art Museum, along with Lynda Benglis, Jackie Ferrara, Nancy Graves, Eva Hesse, Ana Mendieta, Mary Miss, Ree Morton, Michelle Stuart, Dorothea Rockburne, and Hannah Wilke.