James Lee Byars. Letter to Guy Schraenen, 1976. 'Dear Guy I like your 1000 pages .. '

Extremely long handwritten letter in red felt tip on black tissue paper, 25.4 x 660 cm, folded to 13 x 25.4 cm. Contains one text line in large letters with one text line in smaller letters beneath it. The text refers to the book project 'The Thousand Pages Black Book' which JLB and the Belgian publisher and gallerist Schraenen were working on (not realized). A transcription is added.

JLB suggests using specific paper (hand-dipped black Bible papers) and wants to 'take (the) Book Way Up' by presenting it in a little black room show in Paris ('I also love black (painted) Christmas trees with black bananas'), with a black invitation card, and black champagne in black champagne glasses, .. 'they go well with our 1000 page black book with its purely insisted philosophical text'. Provenance: Guy Schraenen. The letter was shown in the JLB exhibition in the Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen 1995 and is mentioned in the catalogue (no number).