Right after the etchings of beginnings of the '50s, with themes of the Argentine northwest Berni encouraged a renewal in his engravings of the same tenor of the one he produced in the big assemblings of Juanito Laguna's series. Juanito was the first subject he developed in wood engravings of great format –most unusual for the technique– in which he adhered to the plug metallurgic residues of the same sort of those he employed in his collages, thus reaching a richness of textures that would provide an adequate setting for the character. With these works he won the prize of the Biennial of Venice in 1962, arousing international attention. Then, with the "xilocollages", he undertook Ramona's series, laying stress on the baroque style of an ornamentation that would project in space to medium bulk. That way he created crossbreeds between engraving and sculpture, as he had been doing it between painting and relief.