Definition of "fanwork"

The chapel — a soaring, slender-shafted building, with fanwork upon its roof and an apse deep and pointed — seemed full of light, withal it was hung with black velvet.

1911, Maurice Hewlett, The Song of Renny, Charles Scribner's Son, 's (1911), page 389

There were bits of a vaulted roof with panelled fanwork and moulded ribs, recalling the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster.

2008, Geoffrey Ashe, King Arthur's Avalon: The Story of Glastonbury, Sutton Press, published 2008, page 289

Now the Grand High Witch removes her mask and wig: A hideous beak and a decrepit bodice of skin and bones, like the stone ceiling fanwork in a Gothic chamber, her blotchy scalp a moonscape fermenting cobwebs.

2008, Leonard Ginsberg, Rhapsody on a Film by Kurosawa, Trafford Publishing, published 2008, page 48

He smiled again, easily, dimples creasing his cheeks, and a tiny fanwork of lines crinkled the corners of his dark eyes.

1999, Anne Marie Winston, Lovers' Reunion‎, Silhouette Books, published 1999

The bud vase lay on its side near the bush; a lacy fanwork of roots had spread out over the tabletop, following the path of the spilled water.

2006, Kage Baker, The Machine's Child, Tor, published 2007, page 123

He had three lines running across his forehead, and a fanwork of them radiating from the corner of each eye.

2013, Leigh Evans, The Trouble with Fate, St. Martin's Press, published 2013, page 222

Fans often declare that they prefer fanon to what actually happens in canon and fanworks to the actual series, which is lackluster by comparison.

2008, Tan Bee Kee, “Rewriting Gender and Sexuality in English-Language Yaoi Fanfiction”, in Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, Dru Pagliassotti, editors, Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre, McFarland & Company, page 132

The result is a proliferation of fanworks that explore narratives of transgression as fans play with the permissibility of Supernatural's supernatural world.

2009, Emily Turner, "Scary Just Got Sexy: Transgression in Supernatural and Its Fanfiction", in In the Hunt: Unauthorized Essays on Supernatural (ed. Supernatural.tv), BenBella Books (2009), page 159

Other factors contributing to the increased interest in dōjinshi and in fanworks were the development of fixed otaku landmarks and the spread of computers.

2010, Fan-Yi Lam, “Comic Market: How the World's Biggest Amateur Comic Fair Shaped Japanese Dōjinshi Culture”, in Frenchy Lunning, editor, Fanthropologies, volume 5, University of Minnesota Press, page 239