The project started as a “clumsy dummy” of a book, 11 years ago when Broos was studying at LUCA School of Art in Ghent, where his research led him to come across a text by historian Jonathan Haever on how art movements influenced the designs of mini golf courses throughout history. “I found it very interesting how these simple course designs somehow always seemed to follow current styles and movements”, he explains. Inspired by layouts of the field from the 19th Century onwards, Broos fancied giving it a go himself, designing a number of mini golf courses in a range of shapes and sizes, 18 of which he later compiled into the publication: “the same amount of tracks you play in a mini golf game”.
Now, 10 years later, the project has been revised and republished by Aubergine Press, the newly established publishing house Broos runs alongside graphic designer and illustrator Tim Colmant, in Brussels. With Jonathan Haeber’s words in the introduction, along with the sources and reference photos from historical mini golf course designs, the book compiles all of Broos’ playful golf course drawings, tied up with a scorecard and some mini golf rules for a humorous epilogue. When speaking about the press, Broos tells us that himself and Tim have been sharing their work and ideas with each other for years. “After talking about publishing our own zines for a while we finally joined forces last year and founded Aubergine Press”, he says. Much like Hole, the duo plan to work on many more small runs and illustration-based editions in future, so as to platform the work of other artists and hopefully take us down the track of a few more of their niche interests.