While plenty Jes Grew related topics receive somewhat scarce explanations, few come up as much as the work. It's a central part to the Moses story arc, it's used by both Papa LaBas and Black Herman, along with others in the past. The work shows up all over, and is in essence any expression of the supernatural done by a practicioner of the Osirian religion. But is there a solidly defined work?
That's a harder question to answer. For one, we see the work done in different ways. Moses uses his own destructive version of the work, causing massive damage to Egypt and showing how destructive practicing the work with the left hand can be. On the other hand when the work is practiced properly, with the right hand of course, it can bring good results. Causing the healing of Earline, being believed partially responsible for the knockings, as well as other beneficial aspects of Jes Grew.
On the one hand, life and the growing of living things / nature are all aspects of Osiris. On the flipside, destruction and death are more Set-esque. Most noticeably is the presence of both of these sides within the work. Could this suggest some kind of balance or compromise between Set and Osiris years ago? Maybe the work could transcend both of these gods, as it is clear Osiris was up to some magical things all those years ago. Maybe Osiris was the first practitioner of the work, rather than its creator, and the work is just some supernatural force we'll never understand. Who knows?
The Work is a really vague concept throughout Mumbo Jumbo. I think Reed keeps it this way intentionally, because it doesn't really matter what's in the work. Everything relating to Jes Grew is pretty abstract, and so is our concept of The Work. Regarding your comment about The Work being used for good and for bad, I think that it is such a powerful object that whoever possesses it can do whatever they want on a very large scale, which is what makes it so valuable, sort of like the Elder wand in Harry Potter.
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