Bernal's many publications include:
- The Olmec world. Berkeley, University of California Press. (1969)
- A history of Mexican archaeology: the vanished civilizations of Middle America (1980). London, Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0500780080
and
- Paddock, J., & Bernal, I. (1966). Ancient Oaxaca; discoveries in Mexican archeology and history. Stanford, Calif, Stanford University Press.