The previously overlooked yet unusually fruitful encounter between the copper engraver Albert Flocon and the philosophy of science scholar Gaston Bachelard can be understood as emblematic of the mutual influence between philosophy and art, between intellectual work and craftsmanship. Rooted in surrealism, Bachelard and Flocon regularly pushed the boundaries of their respective fields to arrive at something new. Bachelard, who celebrated a "wild reason" and the experimental, chose the subjects of his thought precisely because of their autonomy and viewed the "difficult" craft of the copper engraver and Flocon's meticulous working method as symbolic of his own "philosophy at work," which always contained the possibility of failure. Hans-Jörg Rheinberger achieves a lucid (dual) biography and intellectual history.