We show that ifb andb are two boundary conditions (b.c.) for general spin systems on d such that the difference in the energies of a spin configuration in d is uniformly bounded, |H ,b ()–H ,b()|C <>, then any infinite-volume Gibbs states and obtained with these b.c. have the same measure-zero sets. This implies that the decompositions of and into extremal Gibbs states are equivalent (mutually absolutely continuous). In particular, if is extremal,=. Application of this observation yields in an easy way (among other things) (a) the uniqueness of the Gibbs states for one-dimensional systems with forces that are not too long-range; (b) the fact that various b.c. that are natural candidates for producing non-translation-invariant Gibbs states cannot lead to such an extremal Gibbs state in two dimensions.