She specializes in art after 1940, with particular emphasis on art produced in the United States and France during the 1950s and 60s. Her current book project, forthcoming with the University of California Press, is titled "Past Flat: Other Sides to American Abstraction in the Cold War." Rich is a frequent contributor to Artforum, and her scholarly publications have appeared in American Art, Art Bulletin, October, Perspective, and the Oxford Art Journal, as well as in many exhibition catalogues and compendia of essays.