When the Sky is Blue rephotographs images from the artist's family archive in the Soviet Union, dated from the late 1800s to the 1970s, interwoven with original photographs. Using a jeweler's loupe, the artist magnified and rephotographed specific details from the archival prints.

The book has no fixed beginning, middle, or end. Each turn of the page creates a new juxtaposition of images, and each juxtaposition suggests a different reading — the meaning of the work shifts with how the viewer enters and moves through it.