One of the largest artworks in the MTA system runs under 42nd Street along the corridor connecting the lines with the . Above the site is the Main Branch of the New York Public Library and Bryant Park, which are reflected in the artwork below. On the walls of the tunnel, commuters see rock outcroppings, tree roots, pipes, animal burrows, and literary quotations. Artist Samm Kunce based the project on the idea of systems. In her words, "People travel the subway system, water and other utility services are delivered by pipes, and plants and trees that provide grace and softness against the city's sharper edges find their way to water and nutrients underground through a system of roots. In a similar way, literature is shared by systems of learning and lending, and many animals inhabit systems of burrows just as humans systematically divide portions of larger habitats aboveground." At the west end of the tunnel, color asserts itself in a frieze of rock and plant forms with a quote from psychologist Carl Jung: "Nature must not win the game, but she cannot lose." 

Environmental artist Samm Kunce holds degrees from the San Francisco Art Institute and Bard College in New York. Early in her career in New York City, Kune worked as a studio assistant for artists Leon Golub and Nancy Spero, a famed feminist artist. Growing from an assistant into an occasional artistic collaborator with Golub and Spero, Kunce’s practice developed beyond her formal arts education. In her own practice, Kunce’s artwork explores ideas gathered from science and literature. Kunce’s concern for our shared environment stays at the forefront of her work, with designs that celebrate of inherent beauty of natural materials.