Designing & Publishing a Book for
Carmen Eloisa González Quiñones

Carmen Eloisa González Quiñones is an expert in her field. After retiring as an Engineer, Carmen dedicated her life to the manufacture and research of Religious Wooden Saints. This is a very popular and ancient tradition in the island of Puerto Rico. She has already published two books dealing with different aspects of this craft and now we had the privilege of working with her on her third book: Altares, Retablos, Nichos y Relicarios, conjunto de Elementos Asociados al Fervor Religioso en Puerto Rico Santo, ¿donde te pongo? Which roughly translates to Altars, Altapieces, Niches and Lockets group of elements related to the Religious Fervor in Puerto Rico. Saint, where shall I put you? The title is very long but it is very descriptive of the content of the book.

Material can be very specialized and could be misinterpreted if not clear after designing and publishing any book. This book was very carefully edited, since it was highly specialized.

The quality of the photography was not ideal. Many photos had been handed down and others had to be taken from behind glasses because the Priests would not give permission to take the items out of their showcases.

There was a lot of photo retouching to do but there is a slight advantage of this being mostly a reference book, the photography standards are not as rigid as with other books. This is not to say that each and every one of the photos wasn’t treated and retouched as best we could.

We used a landscape format because it was more appropriate for the altar photos. The process has been very rigorous and time consuming but the author is very pleased with the outcome . . .