No Is Not an Answer is the largest presentation of Marie-Louise Ekman’s art ever featured in the form of a book. As one of the most influential artists in Sweden in the postwar period, Ekman was both part of Swedish pop and the rebellious underground in the ’60s and ’70s. She created a unique body of proto-feminist work, which draws equally from the playful imagination of a young woman and popular culture in the social welfare state. She has directed more than a dozen films, TV series, and plays, and since 2009 she has been the director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.

The result of a collaboration between Tensta konsthall and the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter and an offshoot of the exhibition “Doing what you want: Marie-Louise Ekman accompanied by Sister Corita Kent, Mladen Stilinović and Martha Wilson,” the publication aims to show the contemporary aspect of Ekman’s works and to examine the wider international context surrounding the start of her career.