[1] Hessing has been described as having made a 'very significant contribution from the late 1960s into the 1980s to the development of weaving as monumental public sculpture'.
Described as softly spoken and modest, Hessing cut a striking figure at her exhibition openings, looking 'more like a model than a weaver of wall hangings'.
[5] For the 1967 exhibition at the Australian Design Centre, Sydney organised by the newly formed Craft Association of Australia, there was a noticeable shift by artist craftspeople to be less 'homespun' and more 'professional'.
[8][9] Elywyn Lyn, writing again for The Bulletin commented that modern universities had too much concrete and the new auditorium 'needed' Mona Hessing's Banner for 'its impressive amalgam of monument and bomb shelter'.
Elywyn Lyn declared that 'the era of woven objects with positive personalities is upon us' and found Hessing's work 'symmetrical, but not neat and orderly'.
In 1973 Hessing was invited to exhibit with artist friend and ceramicist Marea Gazzard in 'Clay and Fibre' at the National Gallery of Victoria.
Nancy Borlase of The Bulletin commented the work was able to 'transform the Bonython into something exotic' and she went so far as to further describe the Gallery space as having been 'transformed into a Bedouin encampment'.
[13] In 1990 Hessing moved to Tuross Head on the NSW South Coast to care for her mother, where she remained permanently.
Hessing, regarded as a master craftsman and an influential weaver, threw away convention and created monumental forms by hand, using a variety of innovating techniques that incorporated knotting, twisting and folding.