Tracey Emin’s 'No Substitute for Your Love' reflects many of the enduring concerns of Emin’s practice, especially her intense focus on love, absence and emotional vulnerability but it does so through a slightly more symbolic, almost poetic visual language than some of her more overtly autobiographical pieces.

The etching was inspired by Hans Holbein’s 'Portrait of a Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling' (c. 1526–1528), a Northern Renaissance work that originally depicted a human figure alongside animals. In Emin’s reinterpretation, the human subject recedes entirely, leaving behind subtle elements of nature, such as a softly rendered squirrel and branches, drawn in the artist’s characteristic scratchy and hesitant lines. This choice transforms what might have been a straightforward portrait into a meditation on absence and the trace of affection, where the animal presence and the delicate marks seem to embody love’s lingering imprint after the beloved has gone. Positioned above or integrated within the image is the phrase “No Substitute for Your Love,” a poignant, almost confessional declaration that captures the bittersweet recognition that nothing can replace a lost or irreplaceable connection, a theme that resonates deeply with Emin’s longstanding exploration of desire, loss and the emotional residue of relationships.

As with much of her work, there’s a tension here between the fragility of the etched line and the weight of the sentiment expressed, underscoring how Emin uses minimal visual forms to convey complex emotional states.

This piece sits within the broader context of her oeuvre, in which intimate personal experiences, and the attempt to make sense of them, become universal reflections on love and longing.