I love her, and that’s the beginning and end of everything.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Press your thumbs together, bend the remaining fingers, and have them connect at the fingernails. Slightly overlap your thumb and index finger. Combine the less-than symbol with the numeral 3. Draw a diamond, make a half circle on the top-left side, make another half circle on the top-right side. These various directions will all create the universal symbol of love, an anatomically inaccurate depiction of the heart that has come to represent the center (or heart) of emotion, intuition, sincerity: heartbroken, follow your heart, cross my heart. In the body, a functioning heart is essential to being alive. Some poets and great writers might also argue that love is the sole purpose of life. Across cultures and religions, from science to artistic expression, the heart as symbol has been omnipresent for centuries, whether in ancient practices or pop-art creations.

True love, in all types of relationships, is something to believe in. The same sentiments showcased in the legendary fictional romances of film (think Jack and Rose, Westley and Buttercup, Noah and Allie) can be found in real-life examples (Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, JAY-Z and Beyoncé). Love is an endless fountain of inspiration and has perhaps been the greatest source of creative expression in history, whether in fashion (Moschino, Saint Laurent), art (Klimt, Leonardo, Koons), or poetry (E. E. Cummings, Pablo Neruda). While love the feeling may not be a tangible, visible thing, the pages of Heart & Love come the closest to capturing this ever-elusive, all encompassing, life-changing, often fickle, most important, world-consuming emotion.