If you’re a self-identified artist, writer, or musician who’s ever wondered: “Why the hell am I doing this?” — then Eleanor Davis’ Why Art? is for you.
The 200-page graphic work, put out by Fantagraphics Books, tackles this question by exploring many of the aspects, purposes, and forms of art with humor, poignant observation, and black-and-white drawings with three tantalizing pops of color. What’s more, Davis does all of this while subtly weaving an allegorical meta-narrative that shows itself in the latter part of the book where art begets life begets art begets destruction begets life begets art.