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# John Divola's Sheila Puts His Most Private Photographs Next to Zuma and Vandalism
- URL: https://www.unknowndivide.com/john-divola-sheila-tbw-books/
- Published: 2026-10-13T11:15:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-13T11:19:20.000Z
- Description: TBW Books' new John Divola monograph, Sheila, pairs rarely seen portraits of his wife at the time, made between 1976 and 1984, with images from Zuma, Vandalism and his LAX Noise Abatement Zone series. Arriving October 2026.
- Author: unknowndivide staff
- Tags: Culture, Design

Some photobooks show you the work. This one shows you the life the work came out of. Oakland publisher [TBW Books](https://tbwbooks.com/products/shelia?ref=unknowndivide.com) is releasing *Sheila*, a new monograph by John Divola built around portraits of his wife at the time, and the pre-order listing says it arrives this October. Most of these pictures were never exhibited and, according to TBW, were never meant to be.

## What is in the book

Divola made the portraits of Sheila between 1976 and 1984\. TBW calls them intimate and striking, and quotes Divola describing her as having inspired the kind of love "you read about in books but assume is an exaggeration." The publisher counts them among the most personal photographs he has ever made.

The twist is the sequencing. Threaded through the portraits, appearing and disappearing, are images from the major series Divola was building during the same years, including *Zuma*, *Vandalism* and *Los Angeles International Airport Noise Abatement Zone*. Those are the bodies of work TBW says came to define his place in the photographic canon. Here they share the page with pictures of the person he was living with while he made them.

TBW's description of the effect is "quietly revelatory." The career-making work and the private work sit on equal footing, interrupting and illuminating each other. Divola has noted that Sheila's presence was woven into his work in those years, and seeing the two side by side reframes both. In his words, as TBW puts it, the personal and the conceptual are rooted in "the artifacts of a lived life."

## The specs

- Hardcover
- 86 pages, 51 plates
- 10.5 x 9 inches
- ISBN 978-1-942953-85-2
- Pre-order now; TBW lists it as arriving October 2026

The interior spreads on TBW's product page show a quiet, classic layout: single images floating on generous white pages, mostly black and white with occasional color. Check the [TBW listing](https://tbwbooks.com/products/shelia?ref=unknowndivide.com) for pricing and shipping before you order.

## More from TBW this fall

TBW has a second October title worth a look. [*When the Wind Blows North*](https://tbwbooks.com/products/when-the-wind-blows-north?ref=unknowndivide.com) by Cole Barash, co-published with Deadbeat Club, began as Barash retracing wilderness routes his late father once traveled. Over five years it grew into a book that mixes landscapes made across the American West and Northeast with silver gelatin prints from his father's archive. It is a hardcover with a tipped-in chromogenic print, 120 pages and 78 plates, and the first 20 copies come with a small archival rice paper print. A portion of proceeds supports Big City Mountaineers, a nonprofit that runs wilderness mentoring expeditions for young people. You can browse the rest of the catalog in [TBW's shop](https://tbwbooks.com/collections/all?ref=unknowndivide.com).

## Why it matters

Photography history tends to file artists by their famous series. *Sheila* argues against that. Putting a private archive next to the work that made Divola's name is a reminder that every project has a life around it, and that the life is often what gives the work its charge. For collectors, it is also simply rare material: pictures that, for the most part, have never been exhibited in the four decades since he made them.

If this is your corner of the shelf, pair it with our looks at [Tina Barney's Fashion](https://www.unknowndivide.com/tina-barney-fashion-aperture-book/) and [Zanele Muholi's Faces and Phases](https://www.unknowndivide.com/zanele-muholi-faces-and-phases-mack-book/), two other big photobooks landing this fall.

[Pre-order Sheila at TBW Books](https://tbwbooks.com/products/shelia?ref=unknowndivide.com) · [When the Wind Blows North](https://tbwbooks.com/products/when-the-wind-blows-north?ref=unknowndivide.com) · [TBW on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/tbwbooks/?ref=unknowndivide.com)