This fifth volume in Richter's Atlas series combines scholarly commentary with a catalogue of works, covering individual blocks of images as well as the previous showings of the Atlas, complete with hanging diagrams, discussions of the exhibitions and a bibliography. The book's imposing dimensions invite comparison with a large geographical atlas.

All the plates were scanned directly from the originals, and the proofs have been checked against the originals several times. The artist himself is closely involved with this project, approving the process and printing. He authorised new prints from some of the existing negatives, in some cases choosing a colour profile that better matched his ideas and memories of the photographs' original quality.