After leaving her birthplace of Santiago, Cuba,[3] she spent some time in New York with her two children, Yasfaro and Domingo, to work as a model,[4] where she met Montenegrin artist Dado (né Miodrag Đurić), three years her senior, and a protégé of French artist Jean Dubuffet.

The couple returned together to France and set up home in a converted mill in a small village outside of Paris.

Embroidery constituted the major part of Hessie's practice, but her work – which has attracted renewed attention in recent years – embraces a broader scope than is at first apparent.

More infrequently, her works feature stitched-on buttons, holes, or typewritten letters dispersed across the fabric support, together with collages of objects or materials on paper.

Her repetitive techniques are the basis for a strict formal repertory, expressed in series of works with functional, descriptive titles: Grillages (grid forms), Bâtons pédagogiques (teaching sticks), Végétation or Machines à écrire (typewriters).