Dennis John Ashbaugh is one of the first artists to use DNA patterning in his paintings, of which one is titled, Designer Gene. Although he does not use computers to create his images, he also creates large images of computer viruses with underlying themes of networks and their relationship to viruses. His works tend to be large scale, and because of his style, and use of light and color, he is sometimes compared to Mark Rothko.

In 1992, he collaborated with William Gibson, fiction writer, and with publisher Kevin Begos on a book, Agrippa, meaning 'book of the dead'. Gibson's writing has been strongly influential on Ashbaugh. "The work consists of a 300-line semi-autobiographical electronic poem ...