I'm baffled by camera choices now. What's a good choice for quality black & white pics?

Just about any inexpensive compact camera from a major manufacturer will serve your purposes. That would be Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax, Olympus, Fuji, Sigma, Samsung, Panasonic, etc. Here's a good source: hrrp://dpreview.com

For art in black and white, I'd stick to film. If you're going to make large prints from it, then I'd try and buy a 645 type of camera, like the Mamiya (but there are others). You might also look into View Cameras and consider the concept of camera movements (changing the plane of the lens in relation to the plane of the film). Some people build View Cameras. A home development kit isn't hard to get or use, but the real art is in the printing, so either look into printing at a college with an enlarger, or consider buying one for yourself. Buy "The Print" by Ansel Adams to get some ideas for how to modify. You can then have the print scanned and modify more in Photoshop.

Almost any digital camera can be set to photograph in b/w. Or you can convert files in software to b/w. In the world of digital, colour is the default setting. I am not aware of any digital camera that only photographs in b/w.

Or indeed you can buy a camera using film, and learn how to use it, and pay the fairly high film and processing costs at a pro lab - your local Walmart probably will not process b/w film.

Basically, why do you take photos? Is it as a memory guide, or do you actually use (b/w) photo prints as part of your artworks?