Steve Wood's artwork consists of 160 eight-by-eight-inch bronze relief tiles (80 each on the uptown and downtown platforms) that have been placed within the platform walls of the station. The tiles portray the fossilized remains of a variety of biological life forms. The artist's intent was to bring to the surface, in a subterranean public space, an exploration of the nature of what is found underground, usually through excavation. "The idea behind Fossils is simple: the subway is underground, fossils are found in the earth," the artist says. "I wanted these reliefs to be 'scattered' over the walls of the northbound and southbound platforms in such a way that both children and adults would see them personally and close-up. They are meant to be looked at, touched, talked about, and remembered."

American artist Steve Wood is a skilled sculptor with works in major institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Wood earned a BFA from Hartford Arts School and an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art’s (MICA) revered Rinehart School of Sculpture. He was also a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Sculpture in 1983.