Fist

Object Lessons

By: (they/them) nelle mills

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

Our ability to make a fist is what distinguishes humans from every other species, including primates. The fist has played a crucial role in the birth of language and appears in nearly every form of nonverbal communication. We use our fist to protest oppression, give pleasure, knock on doors, give daps, and (inaccurately) measure our heart. Yet the fist is also a sign of someone on the edge.

This book asks what happens when we lean over the edge of what a fist can do and symbolize. Fist uses historical moments and artifacts, interviews, and personal narratives to explore the fist's ambiguous and divisive nature. Fist examines knuckle tattoos, the Black Power salute, Obama’s fist bumps, the Fig, and fisting, the last sexual taboo. Fist uncovers what flexing our knuckles says, not just about us, but the world in which we live.

©2026 nelle mills (P)2026 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc