THEY STARTED IT . . . AND WE'LL FINISH IT - BY RICHARD PRINCE AND ZACH SEBASTIAN

THEY STARTED IT . . . AND WE'LL FINISH IT - BY RICHARD PRINCE AND ZACH SEBASTIAN

Photographs by: Richard Prince, Sebastian Zach

Published by: Innen; Zurich, CH, 2015, edition of 200

Softcover, 29 pages

13 x 19 cm

Language: English

Condition: Excellent

Published in a limited edition of 200 copies by Innen Zines (Zurich, 2015), They Started It… And We’ll Finish It is an incendiary collaboration between filmmaker Zach Sebastian and art provocateur Richard Prince. This softcover zine captures a disturbing yet deeply American collision of motorcycles, destruction, and nationalist anxiety, filtered through Prince’s signature appropriation and Sebastian’s raw documentary aesthetic.
The project originates from Sebastian’s unreleased documentary about a rural community in Dayton, Illinois, convinced that Japan is “buying up America.” Their response? A raucous party where they set fire to and destroy Japanese cars and motorcycles—a bizarre, ritualistic act of defiance. The images in the zine, shot directly from VHS frames of Sebastian’s footage, take on a warped, ghostly quality, reinforcing the surrealism of the spectacle.
Prince, drawn to Sebastian’s lo-fi aesthetic and themes of reappropriation, curated the final selection of images, lending the work an unsettling sense of ambiguity. Loaded with jingoistic one-liners and charged historical references—like the WWII-era phrase that serves as its title—the zine straddles the line between critique and complicity. Whether seen as ironic commentary, disturbing documentation, or a raw glimpse into the underbelly of American identity, They Started It… And We’ll Finish It is a powerful artifact of cultural tension, mythmaking, and the violent absurdity of nostalgia.