Take a journey into the fantastical world of rap goddess Nicki Minaj in the autumn/winter issue of Dazed. To celebrate our biggest edition of the year, photographer Jeff Bark and Dazed Fashion Director Robbie Spencer have created a pair of covers that explore two very different sides of Her Minajesty – the demure fashion obsessive and the provocative pop culture bombshell. Alongside an 18-page shoot, Ms Minaj lets loose on everything from fame to feminism.

Also in the issue, Katie Hillier and Luella Bartley, the double act behind Marc by Marc Jacobs, take us into their girl-powered British invasion and revamp of the brand. We ride a wave of fantasy and delusion in 52 pages of fashion: Ben Toms and Mattias Karlsson take a female bodybuilder to task; Paolo Roversi shoots his enduring muse Guinevere Van Seenus in sized-up knitwear styled by Robbie Spencer; Robi Rodriguez stages a salon-style couture show in an old folks’ home styled by Robbie Spencer; Benjamin Huseby pulls up to the American Drive-in with styling by Jacob K; Set designer Shona Heath blows up the house in an inflatable shoot by Julia Hetta, styled by Cathy Edwards.

Photographers Walter Pfeiffer, Fumi Nagasaka, Matt Lambert and more unearth their favourite images for a provocative sex-driven portfolio. The hyperreal artists behind A. G. Cook’s label PC Music create exclusive images that reflect the collective’s sickly sweet laptop anthems. Swedish art-pop pioneer iamamiwhoami proves she is a force of nature ahead of her new release BLUE. Karl Lagerfeld and J.W.Anderson explain fashion’s unlikely fetish with normalcy in an essay on the avant-bland.

Elsewhere, David Cronenberg talks the strange realities of showbiz with rising actress Sarah Gadon; we meet emoji-obsessed online innovators ebaE, the Russian Andy Warhol, simply known as E-E, and new noise provocateur Pharmakon. For our autumn/winter art residency, Yohji Yamamoto’s women’s AW14 collection is given a power-packed polychromatic infusion by the photographers behind cult magazine Toilet Paper, Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari.

Subscribe to Dazed magazine here or pick up your copy from newsstands on Thursday September 11.