In the Bi 2 O 3 -MO-P 2 O 5 diagrams, most of the inorganic frameworks display Bi-M-O polycationic ribbons isolated by XO 4 groups and interstitial cationic channels. They are formed of edge sharing O(Bi,M) 4 tetrahedra. The width of the ribbons coexisting in the structures and their arrangement is changed from one compound to the next one. Due to mixed Bi 3+ /M 2+ particular positions, a great chemical flexibility and a great degree of disorder may exist. It has been possible to extend ribbons to infinite [Bi 2 O 2 ] 2+ like sheets, sandwiched between XO 4 based layers. In addition to this fascinating continuous polymerization from 1D chains to 2D sheets, O(Bi,M) 4 and XO 4 groups form ideal structural units for the designing of new materials through empirical structural rules that has been established.