Gas Wars is a collection of 500 generative works released on Art Blocks on 17 September 2025, made with Jalil Wahdatehagh.
The subject is survivorship bias, the mistake of judging from only the examples still standing. Damage is the information here, and so is absence.
Each work is a diagram of an aircraft, marked by a simulated burst of fire. Some planes carry a few holes. Some are riddled. Token 0, auctioned first, is the unmarked survivor. The release itself was part of the work. Tokens 1 to 499 went on sale for 500 seconds, priced by their numbers, one per wallet.
Andy Warhol's 129 Die in Jet! of 1962 painted a newspaper's front page of a crash and turned disaster into a repeatable picture. Chance-based art since John Cage has handed the composition to a process the artist sets up but does not control. Gas Wars joins the two. The program decides where the bullets land. The collector decides only which plane to take, under a clock, and the cheap, unmarked planes were expected to go fastest.
Which planes are missing from the picture, and who tried and failed to get one?
What the surviving image leaves out
In his interview with Hannah Vanek, Butcher discusses survivorship bias: conclusions can be distorted by considering only the examples that remain visible. The aircraft image gives that problem a form. A pristine survivor and a damaged or absent aircraft convey different kinds of information.3
The release as an experiment
Art Blocks' announcement described two phases: an auction for token 0, the unmarked survivor, followed by a 500-second window for tokens 1-499. Those tokens were offered at prices corresponding to their numbers, with one mint per wallet. The launch put collectors under a shared time constraint.
Choosing a token meant choosing exposure to a simulation, not choosing every mark in its outcome. The release announcement predicted competition for cheaper, less damaged aircraft.2
A later proposal to include failed minters
On 30 September 2025, Butcher proposes an access token for both Gas Wars holders and wallets whose attempts to mint failed. This returns attention to the people missing from the successful mint record.1
Chance and judgment
The program determines the visual result within its rules. The collector's choice operates at the point of entry. Here the useful question is not simply whether an audience can change an artwork, but how an incomplete image influences a decision.
Art Blocks' collection record provides individual live views. Looking across different simulations is more informative than treating a single surviving aircraft as a representative image of the whole collection.4
Development
Images
Notes on the record
Sources and further reading
Artist statements describe intention. Reporting and interviews record different perspectives; exhibition announcements establish specific presentations. How sources are classified.
1. Artist / studio · Selected posts from the downloaded account archive
Gas Wars: a proposal to include failed minters
2 selected posts. A September announcement proposes participation for both holders and wallets whose mint attempts failed. Original wording and links are preserved; headings and notes are editorial. This is artist testimony, not independent verification.
2. Gallery / platform · Release announcement
Coming to Art Blocks Curated: Gas Wars by Jack Butcher
Documents the planned two-phase release and its rules. Predictions about collector behavior are explicitly predictions, not results.
3. Gallery / platform · Artist interview
In Conversation With Jack Butcher
Butcher explains Gas Wars and survivorship bias. Published by a marketplace; artist responses are primary testimony.
4. Gallery / platform · Collection record
Gas Wars by Jack Butcher
Lists 500 artworks and the release date of 17 September 2025. Individual works have a live view.