Link, Richard. Fossils by Richard Link.

Richard Link, 1972. Self-published artist's book illustrated with 23 full page spooky black-and-white photographs. Near fine with a couple of nicks on covers. 

Richard Link is an American photographer, visual artist, and educator who emerged within the 1970s conceptual photography movement. Link made a notable contribution to self-published photobook history with his rare 1972 artist's book, Fossils, a slim, enigmatic volume featuring a sequence of twenty-three high-contrast, black-and-white photographs taken in and around natural history museums. Deeply rooted in the mid-1970s fine-art photography network, Link was among the notable photographers and curators featured in conceptual artist Mike Mandel’s landmark Baseball-Photographer Trading Cards (1975), a project that poked satire at the art world's commercialization and whose original print series is held in major permanent museum collections, including the National Gallery of Art.

 Fossils (1972) is a rare, self-published artist book by photographer Richard Link. Distinct from scientific or paleontological texts, this slim volume is a conceptual photographic work that explores the intersections of history, memory, and preservation through a quirky visual narrative.

Key Structural & Thematic Focuses

• A Museum-Centric Setting: The book consists of 23 full-page, high-contrast black-and-white photographs. The visual sequence is shot entirely in and around natural history museums.

• The Conceptual Meaning of "Fossils": Link uses his imagery to play on the double meaning of the word "fossil." Rather than focusing strictly on prehistoric remains, the photographs treat the museum exhibits, the dioramas, and even the visitors and surrounding environments as artifacts frozen in time by the camera lens.

• Sequential Irony: The book is structured as a specific, intentional visual sequence that starts inside a natural history museum and moves outward. Link injects a sense of humor and absurdity into the framing, contrasting the sterile, preserved world of the exhibits with the living world outside.

Fossils is a minimalist photographic essay that transforms a public space of education into a surreal commentary on time. By documenting things that are already preserved or "dead," Link uses photography as a meta-tool to capture the essence of preservation itself, turning everyday museum sights into artistic artifacts.