Born in Paris, Mouly studied architecture at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts before moving to New York in 1974.
Mouly spent 15 years at Raw Books and Graphics, where she published artists' monographs as well as the annual Streets of Soho and Tribeca Map and Guide.
In 1980, she and her husband, cartoonist Art Spiegelman, launched the revolutionary comics anthology, RAW, which brought acclaim to various pioneering comic artists.
She is responsible for around 950 covers in her 19 years at the New Yorker. Her book, Covering the New Yorker: Cutting-Edge Covers from a Literary Institution, compiles over 300 of these works.
She was named Chevalier in the order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication in 2001.
In 2006, and again in 2007, her works were awarded ‘Best Cover of the Year’ by the American Society of Magazine Editors.
In 2011, she was awarded France’s highest honour: the Ordre National de la Légion D'Honneur (Legion of Honour).
