You Will Say is a book collaboration between visual artist Roberley Bell and graphic designer Lorrie Frear. The book is a response to Bell’s deafness for which she has undergone language recognition testing. The visual noise treatment of the one syllable words seeks to capture the frustration of trying to interpret words audibly from the cue “you will say”. The words in the book are taken from the language recognition tests, and have been written on a blackboard and slightly erased to create a blurred and confusing image. The book is in accordion format, which when stretched out full length, reminds the viewer of the long, repetitive and grueling experience of the testing process. The edition of 100 books was offset printed, then fabricated by Bell and Frear in a studio at RIT. The hard cover of the book is covered by a screen-printed rubber band with the message “You Will Say”.

Available from: http://www.wsworkshop.org/

Lorrie Frear teaches Graphic Design and Calligraphy as an Associate Professor in the School of Design at Rochester Institute of Technology. In her work, a primary objective is to make letters and words come to life for students and to infuse a life-long passion for and appreciation of letterform and typographic selection and application and wordplay that will assist them in their professional and personal lives. Roberley Bell spent her childhood in Latin America and Southeast Asia, before returning to the United States to attend the University of Massachusetts and State University of New York at Alfred from where she holds an MFA in Sculpture. Bell is the recipient of many grants and fellowships including the New York Foundation for the Arts, a Pollock Krasner Fellowship, and a 2010 Senior Scholar Fulbright to Turkey. Bell’s work has been exhibited in both one person and group exhibitions, nationally and internationally. Bell has completed public projects in Cambridge, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Baltimore, New York and Kaliningrad Russia. You Will Say , is collaboration between close friends and creative practitioners that have shared the process of one going deaf and her struggle to hold onto the spoken word.

Women’s Studio Workshop is a visual arts organization with specialized studios in printmaking, hand papermaking, ceramics, letterpress printing, photography, and book arts. Artists are invited to work at WSW as a part of our Fellowship Program, Artists’ Books Grants, Residencies, Internships, or to learn new skills in our Summer Arts Institute and community workshop series. Our mission is to operate and maintain an artists’ workspace that encourages the voice and vision of individual women artists, to provide professional opportunities for artists, and to promote programs designed to stimulate public involvement, awareness, and support for the visual arts.