diff --git a/examples/text_labels_and_annotations/demo_text_rotation_mode.py b/examples/text_labels_and_annotations/demo_text_rotation_mode.py
index ded20e8abe8d..834e92519134 100644
--- a/examples/text_labels_and_annotations/demo_text_rotation_mode.py
+++ b/examples/text_labels_and_annotations/demo_text_rotation_mode.py
@@ -17,62 +17,69 @@
   the bounding box of the rotated text.
 - ``rotation_mode='anchor'`` aligns the unrotated text and then rotates the
   text around the point of alignment.
-
 """
+
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
-from mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1.axes_grid import ImageGrid
+import numpy as np
 
 
 def test_rotation_mode(fig, mode, subplot_location):
     ha_list = ["left", "center", "right"]
     va_list = ["top", "center", "baseline", "bottom"]
-    grid = ImageGrid(fig, subplot_location,
-                     nrows_ncols=(len(va_list), len(ha_list)),
-                     share_all=True, aspect=True, cbar_mode=None)
+    axs = np.empty((len(va_list), len(ha_list)), object)
+    gs = subplot_location.subgridspec(*axs.shape, hspace=0, wspace=0)
+    axs[0, 0] = fig.add_subplot(gs[0, 0])
+    for i in range(len(va_list)):
+        for j in range(len(ha_list)):
+            if (i, j) == (0, 0):
+                continue  # Already set.
+            axs[i, j] = fig.add_subplot(
+                gs[i, j], sharex=axs[0, 0], sharey=axs[0, 0])
+    for ax in axs.flat:
+        ax.set(aspect=1)
 
     # labels and title
-    for ha, ax in zip(ha_list, grid.axes_row[-1]):
-        ax.axis["bottom"].label.set_text(ha)
-    for va, ax in zip(va_list, grid.axes_column[0]):
-        ax.axis["left"].label.set_text(va)
-    grid.axes_row[0][1].set_title(f"rotation_mode='{mode}'", size="large")
+    for ha, ax in zip(ha_list, axs[-1, :]):
+        ax.set_xlabel(ha)
+    for va, ax in zip(va_list, axs[:, 0]):
+        ax.set_ylabel(va)
+    axs[0, 1].set_title(f"rotation_mode='{mode}'", size="large")
 
-    if mode == "default":
-        kw = dict()
-    else:
-        kw = dict(
-            bbox=dict(boxstyle="square,pad=0.", ec="none", fc="C1", alpha=0.3))
+    kw = (
+        {} if mode == "default" else
+        {"bbox": dict(boxstyle="square,pad=0.", ec="none", fc="C1", alpha=0.3)}
+    )
 
     # use a different text alignment in each axes
-    texts = []
-    for (va, ha), ax in zip([(x, y) for x in va_list for y in ha_list], grid):
-        # prepare axes layout
-        for axis in ax.axis.values():
-            axis.toggle(ticks=False, ticklabels=False)
-        ax.axvline(0.5, color="skyblue", zorder=0)
-        ax.axhline(0.5, color="skyblue", zorder=0)
-        ax.plot(0.5, 0.5, color="C0", marker="o", zorder=1)
-
-        # add text with rotation and alignment settings
-        tx = ax.text(0.5, 0.5, "Tpg",
-                     size="x-large", rotation=40,
-                     horizontalalignment=ha, verticalalignment=va,
-                     rotation_mode=mode, **kw)
-        texts.append(tx)
+    for i, va in enumerate(va_list):
+        for j, ha in enumerate(ha_list):
+            ax = axs[i, j]
+            # prepare axes layout
+            ax.set(xticks=[], yticks=[])
+            ax.axvline(0.5, color="skyblue", zorder=0)
+            ax.axhline(0.5, color="skyblue", zorder=0)
+            ax.plot(0.5, 0.5, color="C0", marker="o", zorder=1)
+            # add text with rotation and alignment settings
+            tx = ax.text(0.5, 0.5, "Tpg",
+                         size="x-large", rotation=40,
+                         horizontalalignment=ha, verticalalignment=va,
+                         rotation_mode=mode, **kw)
 
     if mode == "default":
         # highlight bbox
         fig.canvas.draw()
-        for ax, tx in zip(grid, texts):
-            bb = tx.get_window_extent().transformed(ax.transData.inverted())
+        for ax in axs.flat:
+            text, = ax.texts
+            bb = text.get_window_extent().transformed(ax.transData.inverted())
             rect = plt.Rectangle((bb.x0, bb.y0), bb.width, bb.height,
                                  facecolor="C1", alpha=0.3, zorder=2)
             ax.add_patch(rect)
 
 
-fig = plt.figure(figsize=(8, 6))
-test_rotation_mode(fig, "default", 121)
-test_rotation_mode(fig, "anchor", 122)
+fig = plt.figure(figsize=(8, 5))
+gs = fig.add_gridspec(1, 2)
+test_rotation_mode(fig, "default", gs[0])
+test_rotation_mode(fig, "anchor", gs[1])
 plt.show()