For a quarter century she has explored factory farming, meat packing, apartheid, sweat shops, prisons, AIDS, and war. Her commentary on political events and social injustice is published in newspapers, magazines and books. The results of her investigations are hung in museum and gallery exhibitions and form an essential part of personal fine print collections by artists and activists alike. Coe's paintings and prints are auctioned as fund raisers for a variety of progressive causes, and since 1998, she has sold prints to benefit animal rights organizations.

Her major influences include the works of Chaim Soutine and José Guadalupe Posada, Käthe Kollwitz, Francisco Goya and Rembrandt. She is a frequent contributor to World War 3 Illustrated, and has seen her work published in The Progressive, Mother Jones, Blab, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time Magazine, Newsweek The Nation and countless other periodicals.

In the 1980s, Coe was featured on the cover of Art News and her artwork has appeared in numerous museum collections and exhibitions. In 2002 Brown University staged an exhibition of her work titled Commitment to the Struggle: The Art of Sue Coe.

Recent projects include 9-11, on the collapse of the World Trade Center and her publication Bully: Master of the Global Merry-Go-Round (2004), a critique of the Bush administration. Her latest book Sheep of Fools a song cycle for 5 voices was published in September 2005.

She taught courses at Parsons School of Design about social awareness in art.

Her work is represented by Galerie St.Etienne in New York City.