he author, Nadine Michau, has conducted “a comprehensive and thoroughly researched ethnographic study of a small factory specialising in hydraulic presses. LBM is a worker cooperative, founded in 1980 in Vierzon, France. Only seven people work there, but Nadine Michau shows how a love of machines, pride in a job well done, the value placed on experience, flexible skills, good humour and camaraderie guarantee the survival of a factory employing artisanal methods in an industrial world which, on the contrary, has continued to chip away at very small businesses.”

It’s worth pausing here to note that together, this small team produces mechanical and hydraulic presses for companies as important and strategic as Valeo, Renault and Dassault.

Dominique, the fitter, takes charge of a one-tonne hydraulic cylinder with the promise he’ll “have it looking its best.” Mohammed, the automation engineer, talks about “breathing life” into the machine, adding “our machines are beautiful […] we have to feel good about them.”

In a world that has lost its head, isn’t the hand exactly what we need!

It strikes me that the exact same spirit characterises the “mechanical artists” of Sainte-Croix. Is it a coincidence that a jeweller as prestigious as Van Cleef & Arpels has opened a workshop in Sainte-Croix, next to these artisans? Of course not. “Breathe life” says the man who manufactures “by hand” — and, it’s tempting to say, “in spirit” — presses that weigh several tonnes and generate a phenomenal force. “Breathe life” say the automaton makers, music box makers and watchmakers of Sainte-Croix.

Nadine Michau says the purpose of her exploration was “to show that the strength of this small factory lies in forms of cooperation between these individuals, constantly renegotiated technical and ritual forms. Also, to show that the construction of these machines implies a degree of hand-assembly that no-one would have imagined: work that resembles creative practice or craft and is largely dependent on a ‘sensory dimension of knowledge produced in situ’.”

The “little guys” haven’t said their last word. Nor has the hand. The hand — life, beauty, knowledge, call it what you will — that, ultimately, makes all the difference. In a world that has lost its head, isn’t the hand exactly what we need!

Nadine Michau, Machine 12 256. Ethnographie d’une usine-atelier, EHESS, “Apartés” collection, 182 p., €14