Bona was born in Rome in 1926. Her passion for art became apparent in her earliest days of childhood, stemming also from the influence of her uncle, Filippo de Pisis, a great Italian painter and an artist of eccentricity.

Against her parents wishes, Bona enrolled in art school in 1939. From 1946, she lived with her uncle; and following him to Paris in 1947; she married the writer, Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues three years later. Since 1953, Bona has exhibited her work both in France and abroad. She resides in Paris and in Venice.

Bona belonged to the postwar surrealist generation. The first sign of her presence within the movement came with her participation in the 1953 exhibition organized at the Etoile Scellee Gallery.

Bona’s most important artistic material has been not paint, but commonplace rags, all taken from scraps of fabric -- scraps of every colour, every material, scraps soiled with paint. The materials’ humble origins could define Bona as a disciple of Saint Francis of Assisi or could lead one to see her as a forerunner of the “Art Povera” movement. Beyond the initial pleasure of her discovery, Bona might have seen the attractive and yet slightly menacing possibility of grasping at the soul in these scraps of cloth -- not simply the soul of the clothing itself, but also the soul of its owner. Bona’s art is in the purest surrealist tradition; it is a gift, an act of love offered generously to each passerby ready to receive it.