i have 2 tables in my access DB, customer and contracts and they are related through the customerid,
this is the script i use normally
SELECT Customer.CustomerName
FROM Customer INNER JOIN Contracts ON Customer.CustID = Contracts.CustomerID;
and it works fine and this is how its represented in the design view
i changed my query to
SELECT Customer.CustomerName
FROM Customer INNER JOIN (select * from Contracts) derivedtable ON Customer.CustID = derivedtable.CustomerID;
similar to yours and it gave me same results and this is how its represented in the design view
i hope it clarifies