In 1961, Hesse's gouache paintings were exhibited in Brooklyn Museum’s "21st International Watercolor Biennial". Simultaneously, she showed her drawings in the John Heller Gallery exhibition "Drawings: Three Young Americans". In August 1962, she and Tom Doyle participated in an Allan Kaprow Happening at the Art Students League of New York in Woodstock, New York. In 1963, Hesse had a one-person show of works on paper at the Allan Stone Gallery on New York's Upper East Side. Her first solo show of sculpture was presented at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, in 1965. In November 1968, she exhibited her large-scale sculptures at the Fischbach Gallery in New York. The exhibition was titled "Chain Polymers" and was her only solo sculpture exhibition during her lifetime in the United States. The exhibition was pivotal in Hesse's career, securing her reputation at the time. Her large piece "Expanded Expansion" showed at the Whitney Museum in the 1969 exhibit "Anti-Illusion: Process/Materials".