For anyone interested in learning more about the ANSI art scene and BBS history in general, I highly recommend Jason Scott's documentary series "BBS The Documentary"[0]. There is a part specifically dedicated to the art scene [1]. Watching this series in my early teen years really opened my eyes to the fact that the internet subcultures I was then a part of had been around for much longer than I was aware.
It really does go back to the 1960s phone phreak subculture as well as technophile aspects of the hippie subculture. Look for old issues of the Whole Earth Catalog.
A lot of those people from the 1990s grew up and created the tech startup scene, which sometimes reminds me of hacker/warez groups in some ways.
If you're into this sort of thing, you'll like Exploding the Phone[1] which details the history of phone phreaking and Counterculture to Cyberculture [2] which is a critical look at how the Whole Earth Catalog circle interacted with the tech scene.
[0]http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/
[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t74FlFL_M0