Signed two-page typed letter to Ira Licht, dated 16 April 1976.

(Paris)., 1976. Two sheets, typed rectos only, folded twice in airmail envelope.. (11 x 16 cm) envelope.. Letter sent by Gina Pane to Ira Licht, then curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Pane had been one of the participants at Licht’s groundbreaking Bodyworks exhibition the previous year, and her letter was seemingly composed in response to Licht’s printed introduction in the show’s catalogue. In the letter she admonishes Licht for omitting her name in his text: “A la lecture de votre texte d'introduction ou j'ai pu remarquer avec beaucoup de peine l'absence de mon nom”. Realising this may be because Licht was not fully aware of her early work, Pane goes on to list some of her important performances. She later goes on to specifically state that many of her body performances even pre-date those of Chris Burden: “Comme vous pouvez le constater, je suis une des premières à m'être attaquée à mon corps; en effet, six mois avant Chris Burden en ce qui concerne la blessure et deux ans avant lui en ce qui concerne la brûlure avec la piece de 1971”. Whilst the letter, as an aside, also provides a rebuttal to the salacious rumours of Rudolf Scwarzkogler’s demise, Pane ends with saying that she hopes her omission from Licht’s catalogue introduction was not due to her gender: “Je veux bien croire que ce n'est pas parce que je suis une femme que l'on doit à ce point ignorer mon travail mais tout simplement par un manque d'information”. The letter is signed in pen by Pane, who has also corrected parts of the typed text using the same pen.