While still a student, Truchanowska began collaborating with Wiesław Majchrzak, privately the artist’s husband, which lasted for thirty years. Initially, the artist couple worked as a duo not only on illustrations, but also on sgraffito decorations on the tenements of Warsaw and Lublin, which were being rebuilt and restored after the war. The first joint illustration work by Truchanowska and Majchrzak, on the other hand, were illustrations to a collection of the Brothers Grimms’ fairy tales published by Nasza Księgarnia in 1956. In their style, Truchanowska and Majchrzak drew inspiration from the historical and cultural context of the work, referring to 19th-century German graphics and painting. The first major independent commission came from the same publishing house and was for Hanna Januszewska’s Cinderella. The illustrations for Cinderella, reissued many times with Truchanowska’s graphic design, turned out to be, as the artist admitted, a breakthrough in her career.
She has also illustrated books by, among others, Janina Porazińska, Joanna Papuzińska, Józef Ratajczak, as well as Polish editions of works by Italo Calvino, Oscar Wilde or E.T.A. Hoffmann. However, her oeuvre includes illustrations not only to fairy tales and children’s books, but also to historical books, poetry and prose, including The Doll by Bolesław Prus. In subsequent works, Truchanowska drew on delicate historical references, above all to Dutch painting, portraits and especially floral still life paintings – extremely colourful, decorative depictions of flowers are a characteristic element of many of the artist’s illustrations.