Dehner's belief in the communicative power of sculpture caused her to highlight contour over mass. She chose to construct her works from varying parts, a distinctly Constructivist quality. Dehner's sculptures emphasized line and plane over volume and exhibited an assembled as opposed to modeled quality. Her work was included in the 1960 Paris exhibition "Aspects of American Culture." Like many of the other works included, hers were primarily distinguished by their improvisation. In 1965, The Jewish Museum in New York City put on a retrospective exhibit of Dehner's sculpture. This achievement is miraculous considering that she only began sculpture a decade earlier. Dehner began experimenting with wood sculpture in 1974, following the death of her second husband. Much of Dehner's sculpture can be identified by its totemic qualities and emphasis on Constructivist principles. Additionally, it differs uniquely from Smith's work in its medium and construction. Much of Smith's sculpture employed welding as a construction technique, which Dehner did not embrace. In 1981 she took her sculpture to the next level, literally, and experimented with massive steel sculptures. By 1991 Dehner had lost nearly all of her vision and stopped sculpting. By 1993, however, she had figured out a way to collaborate with her fabricator to continue her sculpting. After a prominent career in art, Dehner was found dead in a stairwell outside her apartment in Manhattan on September 22, 1994, at the age of ninety-two.