The title of this beautiful book is a bit misleading. This work is not, in fact, a study of Mexico's early church architecture. Instead, Spears has purposefully—and, to my mind, wisely—ignored the urban churches with which many of us are most familiar, and has instead chosen to focus her study on Mexico's sixteenth-century convento and visita churches. These structures are generally more rural and less accessible to the average visitor, which makes Spears's study a valuable guide for those interested in the physical spaces created for the grand evangelization projects of Mexico's sixteenth-century mendicants.

The work is divided into two parts: one textual and one pictorial. Part one is textual and comprises seven chapters. These chapters are meant to serve as brief introductions to various aspects of the early churches. And they are indeed brief introductions: the longest of them is a mere eight pages. Their brevity is not necessarily bad; there is just enough information here to satisfy most casual readers and guide them through early church architecture. These chapters are not, however, significant contributions to historical or art historical scholarship. The author seems happy to leave more serious discussions of history, architectural style, retablos, murals, and sculpture to others. The most intriguing of these textual chapters is chapter 7, “Time and Transformation,” which is a thoughtful discussion of the ways in which time has ravaged the sixteenth-century conventos through neglect, vandalism, and remodeling.

The least enjoyable chapter for historians is likely to be chapter 1, “Conquest and Conversion.” This chapter is superficial, includes no citations, and ignores most recent historical scholarship on these themes. And given recent historical work by scholars such as John Chuchiack or David Tavárez on idolatry extirpation campaigns, many historians are sure to take issue with Spears's assertion that “the program of the mendicant friars was fairly benign if not beneficial” (12).

The second part, which constitutes the bulk of the book, is a well-organized showcase of Spears's photographs of early convento and visita churches. There are eight chapters in this part, and each chapter is dedicated to a particular present-day Mexican state. Chapter 9 deals with both the state of Mexico and the Federal District, and Chapter 7 deals with both Puebla and Tlaxcala). Geographically, they begin in Hidalgo in the north and continue down to Yucatan in the south. The photography is lovely. Spears has chosen to present the photos in black and white, which both “removes the distraction of color and helps convey architectural form, space, and light” (3). They do indeed possess a rather timeless quality; very few images include elements of present-day life. People, however, are included when possible, maintaining the link between these structures and the communities they serve. As Richard Perry notes in the foreword, the photos are not overly dramatic in their composition. Instead, these “subtle images convey a quiet, almost artless calm” (x). Moreover, in contrast to many of the texts currently available on colonial art and architecture, Spears has organized her photographs by church, rather than by architectural feature or style. This organizational structure is satisfying; it helps to ground these buildings in the geography and gives the work the pleasant feel of a guidebook.

The book's large size will prevent most readers from taking it along on trips to explore rural sixteenth-century conventos. Nonetheless, this book beautifully guides the reader through what Spears calls “the most striking and unforgettable sights” in Mexico (1). Spears's treatment of these architectural treasures is both a testament to her own skills as a photographer and architect and to the sixteenth-century friars and native peoples who built them.